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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 27 March 2021:
- After 10-year halt LIDCO’s Zumurud Tripoli Gate project resumes
- Project is owned by LIDCO/ESDF
- Part of the multi-phase Tripoli Gate I/II & III project
- The mixed-use project is implemented by Turkish Renaissance company
- Project located at Airport Road traffic lights
- Project started in 2010 and halted by 2011 revolution
- LIDCO was run by current prime minister Aldabaiba
- Ramifications for other stalled projects/foreign contractors?
After a ten-year halt, the Libyan Investment and Development Company’s (LIDCO) Zumurrud (Emerald) Shopping Mall Complex on airport road restarted work Thursday.
The project was started in 2010 but, like all major Libyan projects, was brought to a halt by Libya’s February 2011 Revolution. The infrastructure of the first part of the mall had been completed.
The shopping mall is part of the Bab Tripoli (Tripoli Gate II) project which, besides the shopping mall, consists of office space, a hotel and hotel apartments and was touted at the time as one of the largest malls in Africa.
The concept architect is American 5+ Design and the responsible architecture office is Yazgan Architecture from Turkey. The total building area in the project, which has 110.000 m² office space, is 275.000 m².
In addition to 45,000 m² of retail rentable space and 110,670 m² of office rentable space, the project area includes hypermarket, cinema, bowling alley, marinas, restaurants, ice skating area and gym.
In 2010 the total investment amount of the project, which has an investment value of US$ 150 million and the investment value of the 5-star hotel project of $100 million, was expected to amount to about US$ 1 billion.
The shopping mall project had been envisioned to be completed in March 2011, the business centre in June 2011 and the hotel by the end of 2011.
Since the revolution, the construction site has been used as an internally displaced camp – Airport Road Camp – for Tawerghans.
The prime minister Aldabaiba connection
Coincidently, or not, Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba, Libya’s newly sworn-in prime minister, used to be Chairman and General Manager of LIDCO.
Other foreign contractors will be watching closely [restrict paid=”true”]
Attempts by Libya Herald to get further clarification by the new government have so far failed to reap any rewards. It is still unclear why and how this particular project has been restarted and whether the Turkish contractors will be involved in the restarted works.
If the answer is yes, many other foreign contractors will be keen to learn of the basis of their agreement to recommence works.
They will be particularly interested if the Turkish contractors will be paid any of their long-overdue outstanding debts. [/restrict]
