Beirut’s ghost town

ENAR

Maarad Street hasn’t looked this vacant since 2000. Here, in restored downtown Beirut, is where luxury retail, dining and living should meet. At lunch time, the roads should be filled with business executives from multinational companies taking their guests out for a bite. But a reality check in June reveals shy footfalls for the upscale areas and many empty offices. With the economic situation still in a downward spiral and with few tourists on the horizon for this summer, how long can commercial operations in the heart of Beirut remain viable? Rebuilt in the 1990s after Lebanon’s devastating civil war, downtown Beirut has weathered  difficult times. From 1998 until 2002, development in the area slowed as regional tensions rose over Palestine. Then, the July 2006 war was followed by more than 18 months of sit-ins and protest camps that stifled commerce before business boomed again in the high tourism years