I’m really looking forward to seeing the final outcome of the downtown Amman project, which according to the article below will cost some $1 billion. Frankly, I’m not used to seeing a nine-digit figure when it comes to projects in Jordan. For sure it seems — at least on paper — quite unique and revolutionary for the Kingdom. Here is an excerpt from that Reuters article, which was published in the Jordan Times the other day. Big changes await Amman! Let’s wait and see.

$1B new Amman downtown to begin construction in early 2006

AMMAN (Reuters) — Construction work on a $1 billion new downtown area for Amman should begin early next year, a senior executive of the largest property investment firm, state-owned Mawared, said on Tuesday. Twenty-three investors were expected to start work on almost half the one-million-square-metre space allocated for the project, which aims to transform a prime area of the capital’s centre into a high-tech commercial and residential hub.

“It took us a while to do the studies and demolish the existing buildings in the site and now we are moving fast,” Abu Hamdan, director general of Mawared, told Reuters in an interview. Infrastructure work on the site will be finished next March by Abdali Investment and Development, a 50-50 joint venture between Mawared and Saudi-based Oger group, which is owned by the family of late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Source: [The Jordan Times]