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FEATURE

emerging boulaq

cairo’s rapidly growing nileside business district offers retailers a prime location. but can there be too many office towers and shopping centers in one place ?

by m. scott bortot

on september 2, 1666, the great fire of london consumed much of the city. despite the human and material losses caused by the blaze, the destruction presented an enormous opportunity for planners to build a better city out of the ashes. however, due to a lack of civil planning, this never took place. planning was done on a small scale and much of the city’s old design – a conglomeration of small alleys and winding streets – once again took over.

with the massive changes in the economy that came two centuries later, partly because of the industrial revolution, central london had to change. between 1798 and 1889, 22 city planning committees carried out infrastructure projects to widen streets, eradicate dilapidated neighborhoods and make london suitable for large-scale commerce.

like london of several centuries ago, cairo is a city under transformation. where small industries developed over hundreds of years in tiny alleys, massive infrastructure projects – designed to attract commerce and spruce up these old districts – are slowly taking over.

nowhere is a neighborhood’s changing character more evident than along the corniche in boulaq aboul ela. in a triangular area spanning from the ramses hilton to the nile city project just south of the imbaba bridge, and out from the river to the turgoman bus station, off galaa street, a new, high-rise business district is growing. “this is a development plan that is set to transform the heart of cairo and part of a larger plan to change the look of much of the city,” said isis abd el meseh, general director for structural planning for the governorate of cairo.

the area under development goes beyond what can be seen from the nile. although there is no specific timeline, planners aim to transform all of boulaq aboul ela, an area which has approximately 1,000,000 inhabitants and covers about 480 feddans (1 feddan is equal to approximately 1 acre).

dubbed “the wall street of cairo” by urban planner and architect milad hanna, the area appeals to developers mainly due to its nileside location. “because of the nile, it is one of the most attractive areas for new businesses,” said farag al mahrouky, sales executive at the world trade center company, which runs the office and shopping complex of the same name on the boulaq corniche. “it is going to be the center of business for the city.”

in fact, the latest private business developments in the area, including nile city and arkadia, also cite the nile as the reason they chose to build there. although investors saw the surrounding low-income neighborhood as a liability, their desire for riverside property encouraged arkadia’s management to take the plunge. “some people thought that we were crazy for building a project worth £e 700 million in boulaq,” said gasser bahgat, marketing manager for al ahly for real estate development, the company that owns the arkadia center. “however, we knew that it would be a great area because of the nile.”

but building huge projects containing hotels, offices, malls and movie theaters along the river involves not only an investment in money, but an investment in time. because the area in which the new developments have been built was already occupied, purchasing the land was a time-consuming task. tiny plots covered the areas needed for construction, and investors have found that many years can be spent in the process of acquiring the necessary properties.

in the case of nile city, still under construction, the procedure took nearly 20 years. “it’s tough to negotiate for the land, and it’s a long process,” said hatem abed, director of sales and marketing for nile city’s approximately $500 million project. “with many of the units being workshops that are 15x20 meters, it took a long time to get the job done.”

but the effects of such projects on the surrounding community are also felt for years after the building effort is complete. huge projects can have a deleterious impact, especially if no one has studied how they might impact a neighborhood or an area, urban planner hanna said. from a technical point of view, he adds, any big city in the world should have a master plan that outlines concepts to follow for building heights, street widths and traffic patterns. “then, once all these plans are executed, they should be put together like a jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces fitting in a nice way.”

however, this is not usually the case – especially in egypt. in the case of boulaq, hanna said, the developers appear to have “bought land from the poor people and just built without caring about the consequences to the area,” he said. “large-scale developments like this one affect the poor, with an adverse impact on traffic and integration of different social groups – that’s a big one. no one ever thinks of that.”

long-time residents and local businessmen like haj ateya hussein would agree. hussein said that the business development projects have wrecked the spirit of his neighborhood. “they have absolutely no benefit to the area, no added business,” he said. “the construction has destroyed egypt’s heritage.”

the area that is now boulaq aboul ela grew up on a sandbar along the east bank of the nile in the 14th century. under the mamluks, boulaq developed into cairo’s main port, and industry began to flourish there. later, during mohamed ali’s reign, the area was established as a major industrial center, and in 1822 the country’s main printing press was built there. like most of the older areas of the city, boulaq contains numerous architectural gems.

for hussein, heritage is not limited to old buildings, but is more about community spirit. according to him, boulaq aboul ela was one of the neighborhoods that made cairo what it is today. its large concentration of printing presses, metal-working businesses and mechanic’s shops helped build the city. but, with the introduction of places like the world trade center, arkadia and nile city, many of these small industries died out.

“some people left when the workshops moved to other neighborhoods,” hussein said. “others simply lost their jobs because the local businesses closed down. families that lived here for generations were broken up.”

after their land was sold, many former residents discovered that it had been purchased for much less than it was worth. many were left with the feeling that they had been robbed.

abd el meseh, from the governorate office, explained that these people were not robbed, but the way in which land was purchased caused the value to increase dramatically – giving rise to the impression that residents had been duped by investors. “at first people were happy,” she said. “but afterwards, they heard that the value of the land may have, in some cases, risen to 10 times what they sold it for because it had become part of a larger plot.”

the method for purchasing land is standard procedure in such cases, said architect and developer salah hegab, president of sabbour associates. if there are complaints, it is up to the governorate to handle them. according to hegab, governorate officials give investors permission to purchase an area of land once they have inspected the developers’ plans. after that, investors are free to bargain for each piece of property.

hegab also, however, expressed concern about the way some large-scale building projects, including those in boulaq aboul ela, were done without proper feasibility studies. “what happens in egypt is that they build first, and maybe 10 years later they will begin to see their project start doing well,” he said. “something like this happened with the aboul feda office building in zamalek when it took them 10 years to fill the offices after they had built it.”

but apparently this has not been a problem for the world trade center or arkadia. sources at both centers say that filling office space has been easy, especially since their offices were designed with access to the most up-to-date services. “we have a 100-percent occupancy rate because of attractive benefits,” said al mahrouky of the world trade center. “for example, we have 24-hour-a-day maintenance and security.”

the sense of urgency about providing high-quality office space is evident at nile city, set to open in january 2003. not only will offices have 2.8-meter-high ceilings, but there is a 15-centimeter drop in the floor to accommodate wires throughout every office. although the center is not due to open for another year and a half, 60 percent of the office space available in the two 34-story towers has already been taken.

while there have been no problems filling offices, some of the malls in the area have been struggling to keep retailers happy. in the world trade center, some 15 stores have vacated in the past year, a few of them moving to the newer arcadia. “we have reconsidered our competition, and experts are coming in to help with the situation,” said al mahrouky.

the annex – built in 1996 after requests by retailers for more stores – has been especially hard hit. “but because of competition, there were no more visitors to the annex, so the plan is now to convert it to office space,” al mahrouky said.

so far, retailers at the arkadia center-opened six months ago – appear happy with their location, as well as with the services the mall provides. “we have no complaints about the mall’s location,” said mustafa abdel halim, chairman of alfa egypt trading company and owner of toys r us stores in egypt. “it is a good destination for many different age groups.”

abdel halim added that there might be “a few too many” malls in the area, but that this is not necessarily bad for business, as conglomerations of shops attract a larger customer base. however, other retailers occupying spaces in nearby malls are not so happy.

some retailers complain that too much competition is hurting their business. a vendor in one of the nileside malls, requesting anonymity, said that there had not been proper planning in the area. for him, four malls in a 4-square-kilometer area (including the ramses hilton mall and the upcoming retail space at nile city) is very bad for business. currently, there are just over 700 mall stores in the area. “if there is one loaf of bread and one person, it’s good, no problem,” he said. “but if you have three or four people and still one loaf, then there isn’t enough bread anymore.”

another problem, the retailer pointed out, is with the general layout of most egyptian malls. the corridors in his mall are too small and dark, he said, and they seem to lead customers to dead ends.

the retailer also complained that food courts have not been well planned. either the eating areas do not face stores to encourage customers or they are placed on entirely different floors. customer traffic never flows to the benefit of vendors, he said, and many shops have been forced to move out of malls because they were not making enough money to cover the rents. “the best mall in egypt isn’t on the corniche, its in nasr city,” he added. “the geneina mall has an ice-skating rink and movie theatres that attract customers, and the corridors are very wide.”

but if boulaq’s mall corridors don’t accommodate customers, neither do the streets outside, at least not perfectly. recently, this problem has been cured, however, with the introduction two new ramps connecting the 15th of may bridge with the corniche.

although traffic flow is not the responsibility of the business complexes, parking for patrons is. early on, the governorate recognized that the parking areas being provided were not sufficient. the authorities exerted pressure on mall developers to create enough spaces for cars.

nile city has made plans to provide adequate parking for the large numbers of people who will be using the offices. “there will be a four-story parking garage underneath the building that accommodates 1,200 cars. plus there is room for 300 to 400 cars around the project as well,” said abed. more parking, he said, can be built on land the developers have purchased behind the center.

but nileside developments do more than buy up land, contribute to traffic jams and anger long-time residents. abd el meseh noted that such huge projects generate revenue – in the form of taxes – for the government. the rise of business districts improves egypt’s image to the rest of the world, she added.

part of the deal that investors make with the governorate when they build is that they have a responsibility to beautify the area and beef up the neighborhood’s infrastructure. places like the cairo plaza, world trade center, arkadia and nile city must pay for the upkeep of their water and sewage systems as well as maintain the electrical-supply grids that lead to their developments.

in addition to this, they all share the responsibility of making the corniche look good. “we and nile city renovated two kilometers of the corniche,” said arkadia’s bahgat, adding that the project was done entirely under the two centers’ supervision and expense. where there once was a crumbling sidewalk, there is now a wide promenade, a strip of grass and sturdy wooden benches. “it makes sense that we would have a beautiful corniche to go with beautiful buildings.”

while the towers might be beautiful to bahgat, hussein cannot stand the sight of them. “look at it,” he said pointing to the backside of the world trade center. “building that thing choked off the air from the nile.”

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