July - September 2001
In and about the CITY CENTER
SOLIDERE property

In Saifi Village, most apartments have been delivered to their users. Flats in renovated buildings are to be delivered in the coming months. The landscaping of garden areas is complete and there are potential tenants for convenience shops in the area.

Following the Japanese, the British are relocating their embassy to the SOLIDERE compound near the Serail hill. Noticeable progress is registered in the nearby mixed-use development which includes apartments, offices and a health club.

Siemens has leased a regional office in building 200 in Hussein el Ahdab street. An agreement was signed to this effect on June 26. The company will move in by November.

Visitors

The following visitors were welcomed by SOLIDERE in the last quarter:

Officials included Alain Laurent, representative from the World Bank; Puneet Talwar from the US Senate foreign relations committee; Willian Rayback, president of the US Banks controllers' commission; Toby Fiennes from Financial Services Authority (London); and Mr Lanier, head of the downtown Washington reconstruction project.








Representing multinationals were Raymond-Pierre Chigot, Hilton International senior development vice-president for Europe, Middle East & Africa; Lucien Douroux, president of Banque de Gestion Privée Indosuez, with a delegation from two French banks; McDonalds' general manager in Lebanon, with the chairman of Copalex in Paris; Galeries Lafayette president Philip Houzé.

Other visitors from the business world were Traub Associates president Marvin Traub with Tony Salamé, president of Aishti (Lebanon); Firtz Kaiser Group (Liechtenstein) chairman Fritz Kaiser; executives from Flink, Carlsson & Karlsson (Stockholm); Graeber; Simmons & Cowan (US); Ahmad bin Abdullah; head of legal department in Riyad Construction company; and groups of British and French businessmen.

From the professional and academic world came Marion Gilliam from the Oran Institute, a US environment company; five representatives from Ile de France with Rita Gemayel, development manager at Projetud (Paris); a team from Siegelgale (London); university students from Austria; a delegation of Lebanese civil engineers in the US; and 21 teachers from the American Community School in Beirut.

The media was represented by journalists from Egypt, France, Germany, Holland, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland; teams from BBC radio, Dubai TV, Egyptian TV, TV5 (France) and the local NBN.

Conferences

Angus Gavin, from SOLIDERE, spoke at the 'Cities Summit' conference held in Singapore on September 12-13, on 'Adapting cities to the requirement of the new economy'.

Two conferences were held at ESCWA in UN House in the city center this quarter.