Souks get off the ground

After numerous false starts and retracted predictions of an imminent ground-breaking, Solidere’s much anticipated 100,000 square meter Souks project in Beirut Central District (BCD) finally shifted out of neutral in early June and into high gear.
For the skeptical observer, no less than seven towering yellow cranes now dot the site located just below Weygand Street, proof positive, it would seem, that a formidable retail complex will in fact be constructed on top of the long-finished underground parking.
“This project will surely boost the profits of Solidere as more investors are showing an interest in the BCD,” said one Beiruti broker quoted in the local press.
Of course, while such a bullish estimation may eventually prove correct, at least for the time being, things are very much still in a kind of wait and see mode for possible retail tenants.
“We have expressed our interest,” said Michel Abchee, Chairman and CEO of Admic, the parent company of BHV and Monoprix as well as the builder of City Mall in Doura.
“We were interested in the past… But today they are just testing the market.”
“There is a difference,” he continued, “between the construction and the commercial stages. They are still on the drawing board, in fact they are redrawing their plans given the changes in the marketplace since they first announced the project.”
Although the Souks project may offer some competition to other area malls when it is completed in 2006, Abchee seemed wholly unconcerned by the prospect that a competitor may eventually reside in the BCD.
“They are not competing at all… Each is going after a different clientele. For the Souks it is a downtown clientele.”
Either way, he added, “there is a definite place in the market for international retailers who want to find space that meets international standards. Beirut is lacking here and that is what this project and others are trying to address.