CAIRO is brimming with new prestige construction projects in a symbol of the growing confidence of Egyptian and Gulf investors in the country's future. One of the most ambitious of these new schemes is the Nile Plaza Cairo Four Seasons Hotel, being built on a prime site in the capital's Garden City district, on the east bank of the Nile.

It will be one of the first Middle East hotels to be managed by Canada's Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, which claims to manage five out of the top 10 ranked hotels in the US. It will also provide a rare challenge to the contractor picked to build the 34-floor structure - 30 above ground and four below.

'What makes the Nile Plaza a landmark is the sheer scale of the project and the application of North American specifications for virtually all its aspects,' says Essam Allam, project manager representing Alexandria Real Estate Investment Company (AREI), the local partner in the project.

International Bechtel of the US is the construction manager. The architect, structural engineer and mechanical engineer are all Canadian - respectively, Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden, Yolles Partnership, and Rybka Smith & Ginsler. Hamza Associates, a leading local engineering firm, is working as geotechnical consultant. Allam says the interior design, laundry and kitchen services, elevators and electromechanical works have also all been planned by US or Canadian specialists.

The German/local Bauer Egypt is already on site, working on the foundations for the hotel, and on 26 October, international companies are due to submit bids for the main construction contract, which is expected to be worth $150 million-200 million. Companies that are considering taking part in the tender are understood to include:

South Korea - Ssangyong Corporation, Hyundai Corporation and Samsung Corporation

Belgium - Besix

France - SAE and Dumez

Spain - Necso and Dragados FCC

UK - John Laing International

Athens-based - Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) and Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P - Overseas).

Besix has had most success in similar projects in Egypt in recent years. It is working on the Cairo Meridien extension, just across the road from the Nile Plaza site, and is nearing completion of the Cairo Conrad, about three kilometres downriver. J&P has just won a

$60 million contract for the Sharm el-Sheikh Four Seasons - the final price for this scheme was substantially lower than most contractors expected, and John Laing has had a good record in recent years, notably with the First Residence complex in Giza, part of which will be managed by Four Seasons. CCC has come close on a number of recent hotel schemes, finally winning a contract valued at just under $40 million for a new Marriott on the outskirts of Heliopolis. Contractors say the interest of three South Korean firms suggests that pricing on the Nile Plaza will be highly competitive.

The project has had an extremely long gestation. The land was bought in the early 1970s by a Swiss company called Nova Park, which subsequently went bankrupt. Its Egyptian assets, including the 7,368-square-metre Nile Plaza site and the Nova Park Cairo name, were acquired by Talaat Mostafa, chairman of Alexandria Construction Company, one of Egypt's lesser-known contracting firms.

Little progress was made with the development through the 1980s and early 1990s. However, during this period, the Talaat Mostafa Group started to become a much more prominent player on the Egyptian business scene, with a string of new real estate developments, many of them driven by the chairman's son Hisham. One of the first was Rabwa, an upmarket residential scheme covering 1.4 million square kilometres southwest of Cairo. One of the partners was Abdullah Beleihid, deputy mayor of Riyadh, marking the group's first involvement with Saudi investors. The group also evolved a more complex corporate structure, focused on AREI, which has recently conducted a successful private share placement, raising £E 92 million ($27 million).

Allam says that the turning point for the Nile Plaza was the decision taken by Hisham Talaat Mostafa in 1994 to involve Four Seasons. Two years later, the profile-raising exercise went one step further when Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz agreed to take a 50 per cent stake in the venture. It was the Saudi investor's first project in Egypt. Allam says that the agreement by Four Seasons to manage the Nile Plaza predated Prince Alwaleed's acquisition of a 25 per cent stake in the Canadian firm. Alwaleed is also a partner with Talaat Mostafa for the Sharm el-Sheikh Four Seasons.

The Nile Plaza will have 366 rooms and 72 hotel suites, which will be let on long-term leases. 'This is a growing trend,' says Allam. 'A lot of businessmen come to Cairo for six months or a year and like to have high standard serviced accommodation near the city centre.' The complex will also have office space, as well as a shopping area which Allam says is aimed at attracting big international brands. The hotel will have a food court, offering a range of international cuisines in a single restaurant area.

Allam says the target for awarding the main construction contract is February 1999. This is a demanding schedule, However, AREI, Alwaleed and Bechtel have set a precedent for speedy tender evaluation and contract negotiations with the Sharm el-Sheikh project, which was awarded to J&P just two months after the submission of bids.