MANAMA, 17 March 2004 — A Saudi private company, Rikaz, announced Monday it is to build a luxury waterfront city around a manmade lagoon on the Gulf coast at a cost of around $1 billion.
The Fanar City, which is Saudi Arabia’s first residential project specifically geared toward non-GCC property owners, will consists of residential, commercial, and leisure facilities.
The 3.3-million-square-meter project, which will have the longest seafront in Saudi Arabia, measuring over 4,000 meters, will consist of waterfront houses, condominiums, apartments, hotels, a marina, shopping and leisure conveniences, and Saudi Arabia’s largest private lagoon.
Quarters in the new project will range from single-story homes to 16-story high-rise buildings.
An 115,000 sq. meters mall will also be constructed inside the project within the next three years. It will be one of the largest malls of the Eastern Province.
About 90,000 square-meters of sea facing locale has been set aside for residential and commercial projects.
Over 200,000 square-meters had been set aside for foliage, with 50 percent of that area being allocated for private residential gardens. Schools, health centers, and mosques will also be constructed inside the new city.
According to Rikaz President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chairman of the National Real Estate Committee Khalid Al-Ghatani the first phase of the project will be completed in the upcoming three years. In the first phase, residential neighborhoods will be completed on the south side of the project.
Rikaz has already raised an initial $200 million to pay for the first phase of development.
Al-Ghatani added that they are targeting international investors because the Kingdom has introduced new property laws that enable non-GCC citizens to buy and own residential and business property in Saudi Arabia. Describing it as the first project of its kind in Saudi Arabia that has non-GCC nationals as its target market Al-Ghatani said that there is a great potential to be explored.
