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COUNTRY FOCUS
New beginnings Last October, the Bahrain Bay project reached five million accident free man hours
While Bahrain Bay is very much a cutting edge and stylish mega-project for the country, it is still intended to maintain Manama’s character, as well as provide a boost to the country’s economic growth. Closely linked with old downtown Manama, both geographically and in design terms, Vincent describes the Bay as revitalising the country’s capital, situated “in a prime corridor of development”. “The corridor of new development is seen as the future expansion of economic development within the kingdom,” explains Vincent. “As an important part of that corridor, Bahrain Bay’s objective was to ensure that we were sustainable and that we brought investors into the project that had the ability to perform.” Indeed, Bahrain has long been seen as a gateway to the Gulf region; its relatively liberal culture has tradition-
At a glance: Bahrain Bay Start date: Masterplan 2005, construction 2006 Target completion date: 5-7 years (Phased completion) Total floor area: 1.450 million square metre Total land area: 450,000 square metre Total number of buildings: 40
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Anchor developments: Arcapita Bank Headquarters Raffles City Bahrain Four Seasons Hotel International investors: Al Baraka Banking Group Ajmera Mayfair Group Arjaan Rotana Coopertation Investment House DAMAC Kanoo Tower KhaleejCapita Koheeji Salhia Real Estate Company
ally made it an attractive destination for western businesses looking to establish operations in the region. Over the last decade or two however, the advancing economy and flourishing property sector in the UAE, and in Dubai in particular, have made it an attractive prospect in the region, usurping Bahrain’s popularity. Still, today the stability of Bahrain’s economy is beginning to regenerate interest in the country, and the Economic Vision 2030 aims to turn that spark of interest into a fully-fledged firework, capturing foreign investment back into Bahrain – a goal that the Bahrain Bay is paving the way to achieve. Vincent reveals that a significant proportion of investment for the development has come from overseas. “We wanted to ensure that the third party developers who came into the project had the financial experience and the development experience to deliver on their projects,” he highlights, “and to add value to Bahrain Bay and to Bahrain’s economy in general. We specifically went out and tried to attract international investors in Asia, in Europe, in India and in the broader region of the Gulf in particular.” Th is was a successful venture; the targeted approach from Vincent and his team resulted in attracting significant investment from India, Europe and within the GCC, as well as Bahrain’s own major developers. And this was all part of the long term strategy to establish Bahrain as a major player on the world stage. “We feel that by bringing that diversity of investors into the project we’ve been able to fi rst of all demonstrate that there is an interest in investing into Bahrain,” offers Vincent. “We’ve been able to demonstrate that these investors are knowledgeable and capable and are prepared to commit to a market that is in some respects new, but also where they see tremendous expansion opportunities within the Gulf region. They’ve done that in the context of knowing that Bahrain Bay is not a short-term development.” Vincent is firm in reiterating the merits of Bahrain as a business destination in the Gulf region. “While [it] may be a smaller economy than some of its surrounding neighbours,” he says, “it’s able to focus on making the initial investments from these overseas entities successful and in doing so providing further opportunity for the incoming investor – not only in Bahrain, but more importantly in the Gulf region. “Irrespective of the difficulties of the financial market, Bahrain has continued to take that role and has continued to push forward to make sure that it’s seen as a valid way of going about introducing investment into the Gulf.”
Bumpy road Of course developing a project such as this is not going to be plain sailing, a fact that Vincent is well aware of. “There are a series of significant risks in any major development,” he points out. “The initial risks are in undertaking the market assessment of whether or not a development of this scale is viable and sustainable and will be commercially successful; that risk was assessed in 2005.” Indeed, that risk was assessed when the MENA property market was booming and the future for such devel-
16/09/2010 10:04