Balance needed in historic Jeddah

Saudi Arabia's second city, Jeddah, has for years been overlooked in terms of regeneration and development projects. The port city's crumbling downtown central district contrasts sharply with Riyadh's prosperous inner-city business area.

But Jeddah's fortunes are changing. In October last year, the leaders of Jeddah Municipality signed a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of developers, the City Centre Development Company (CCDC), comprising Saudi Arabia's Al-Shamiyah Urban Development Company, Lebanon's Solidere International, Kuwait's Commercial Real Estate Company and Bahrain's Venture Capital Bank.

The signing of the memorandum marked the beginning of the Jeddah Central Development Project, which aims to transform the city by cleaning up Jeddah's polluted lagoon, creating a modern infrastructure for the city centre, and preserving the historic heart of Jeddah.

According to CCDC, about 400 historical sites have been destroyed in Jeddah's old city over the past 30 years, making preservation and restoration of what remains a key part of CCDC's plans for the kingdom's second city.

In July, the consortium will present Jeddah Municipality with a preliminary masterplan, a major milestone for the project.

The masterplan has taken four years to prepare and borrows heavily from Mediterranean waterfront developments, particularly Beirut, in its design.

CCDC is keen to put across the message that its plans for Jeddah will benefit the city for the long term by preventing any more old buildings from being destroyed, building a new infrastructure and cleaning up the waterfront.

Next month's unveiling of the preliminary masterplan will show that there needs to be a balance between preserving old Jeddah and re-generating the city into a modern commercial hub that can rival Riyadh.