Bahrain The Economic Development Board (EDB) is to retender by the end of the year the project to finance, design, build and operate the planned beach resort at Al-Jazair. The decision follows a disappointing response to the EDB’s original request for proposals (RFP), when of the 10 developers expected to respond by the July 2002 deadline, only two did so and their proposals were unsatisfactory. ‘The project will be retendered to make it more attractive to investors,’ says an EDB official. ‘We will change some of the rules on leasing and ownership.’

Under the original project terms, developers would have leased the site from EDB for 35 years for a minimum annual rent of $270,000 (MEED 10:5:02). The area available has also been changed from 1 million square metres to 750,000 square metres. The remainder of the resort is to be developed separately as a complex centred around an indoor snow centre, and including other retail and leisure facilities. Manama-based Riyada Consultingis conducting a feasibility study into the estimated $200 million project.