Dubai’s Majid Al Futtaim Holding (MAF) is proceeding with its Beirut plans despite the regional instability and will be opening its Carrefour store next year:
MAF is planning to expand its Carrefour franchise to Iraq and Lebanon in the next year, taking the total number of MENA states in which it operates to 13.
“We are planning Carrefour openings in northern Iraq this year and Lebanon next year,”
The developer behind Dubai’s three largest malls is also behind the Beirut City Center slated for completion by 2013 (or by MAF’s comments above maybe even 2012) which will house 180 retail shops, cinemas, rooftop restaurants and an entertainment center. Despite the aggressive expansion plans, MAF is stepping cautiously when it comes to Egypt and Syria:
MAF’s development activity in Syria and Egypt had been curtailed by the political unrest in the two countries this year.
[…]
“The progress of these projects will be determined on the basis of political developments as well as on the basis of the projects’ ability to meet the Group’s own risk management policy and investment criteria,” it said.
Who would have thought Lebanon and Iraq would outdo Egypt and Syria in terms of stability.
Perspective Design of Beirut City Center
I think that Lebanon and Iraq has already suffered enough and they deserve a certain period of stability where they can focus on rebuilding their infrastructure and moving towards becoming a developing country!
Unfortunately we are living in a region where it seems there are no possibility to have a global stability so when Lebanon is stable Unrest is hitting Syria and vice versa !
But i would like to have a small comment on the location of Beirut City Center, it seems that the Official authorities didn’t learn from what happened with City Mall, and the traffic cause by the presence of a huge Mall directly on the High way, the same is happening in the region of Furn el chubak And we will really face huge traffic in that region and we will wish that Beirut City Center would have never existed there.
I wished we could have instead a Tripoly City center , Saida City Center, Akkar City Center, Zahleh City Center … etc…
I agree – Beirut is too congested as it is and further concentrating it will not help without a effective public transport infrastructure in place. But unfortunately, deserving stability is far from achieving it. Unless the people in power focus their energy on long-term good rather than short-term gains, the instability cycle will only continue.