Omran to emulate Cape Town’s waterfront in Oman

Oman Tuesday 02/February/2016 21:32 PM
By: Times News Service
Omran to emulate Cape Town’s waterfront in Oman

Muscat: To give tourism a major boost, Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran) plans to emulate Cape Town’s charisma in its Mina Sultan Qaboos Waterfront project.
The Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town has some of the amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Table Bay Harbour, the City of Cape Town and the Table Mountain.
The V&A Waterfront attracts more than 23 million visitors every year.
Situated in South Africa’s oldest working harbour, the 300 acre area has been developed for mixed-use, with both residential and commercial real estate. “There are a lot of similarities between these two places so we are trying to create a similar thing here,” a senior official from Omran said.
Salah Salim Al Ghazali, chief investment officer, Omran, said he will be flying to Cape Town very soon. “A picture is worth a thousand words. Unless I show what we want, people will not believe it,” he said, at an event organised by the Oman Real Estate Association on Monday evening.
“The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Project in Cape Town is an urban regeneration project that has successfully transformed the previously under-utilised part of the Port of Cape Town into the city’s premier tourist, retail, entertainment, commercial and residential destination,” he said.
Regarding investors for the projects, he said Omran is primary looking for Omani investors. “We want the project to be developed by the Omanis, in Oman and for Oman,” he said, adding that he will look at investors from Gulf Cooperation Council countries only if they don’t find Omani investors. “Till now 35 investors have shown keen interest in our projects,” he added.
Sharing the success story of the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town,he said that Omran will supervise the development of the Mina Sultan Qaboos Waterfront Project, which will transform the Port Sultan Qaboos into a major tourism-based mixed-use waterfront destination.
He said that the size of the total investment of the company, including its partners, reached approximately $8 billion.
He added that the biggest projects being implemented by the company represented in the development of Sultan Qaboos Port and Al Irfan City Project.
Al Ghazali said that the infrastructure work of the first phase of Al Irfan City Project was completed.
He added that this phase include Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is currently being constructed, the commercial centre, Business Complex four 5 star hotels including JW Marriott, and 4-star Crowne Plaza hotel; both are currently under construction. He stressed that nearly 25 per cent of this stage was completed.
At the level of local and Gulf investments, he explained that the investment companies expressed interest in investing in all the components of this stage.
The mixed-use waterfront of Sultan Qaboos Port is expected to become a major tourist destination for Oman, offering one of the region’s most authentic and historic waterfront promenades, while promoting the historic centuries-old Muttrah harbour.
The project will also provide a welcome boost to small business owners in Muscat and will generate thousands of sustainable job opportunities. -With inputs from ONA