JO Magazine

For years, rumors have circulated about a large private developer buying up properties in Jabal Amman. Now, Ahyaa Amman is finally stepping out of the shadows.

Words by Laith Abou-Ragheb.

A REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT company called Ahyaa Amman has made public for the first time its unprecedented, multi-million dinar plan to redevelop parts of old Jabal Amman, while still aiming to preserve the area’s unique character and cultural heritage. The Greater Amman Municipality has approved the development, at least in principle -- but that hasn’t stopped its heritage experts from asking some tough questions about the details of the grand scheme.

The first thing to strike you about Ahyaa Amman’s project is its size. The company has so far bought 44 properties in the area between First Circle and the Balad, totaling more than 40,000 square meters of land. That’s larger than seven American football fields.

The firm, whose name translates as “the neighborhoods of Amman,” was set up in 2004 by a group of local investors who wanted to rejuvenate their childhood neighborhoods. In particular, it was the brainchild of Hazem Malhas, a successful entrepreneur and self-confessed local history buff who has strong family ties to the area.

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Now 49 years old, Malhas lives in a 1950s home in Amman’s historically-important Zahran area; he’s on the board of trustees of the American Center for Oriental Research and the Tree Protection Foundation. He believes the Ahyaa Amman project will recapture some of Jabal Amman’s lost grandeur and sense of community, recalling the days when it was an area of stately homes looking out over thriving, middle-class businesses.

“I remember going to downtown Amman with my father for a haircut, and then going to Jabri for kanafeh. Or heading there with my aunts, who’d watch an Indian movie at Al Hussein Cinema, and I’d go to watch a cowboy movie at Al Khayyam Cinema. It was an incredible time,” he said.

Ahyaa Amman aims to transform the area’s tired-looking commercial and residential buildings into new homes, offices, hotels, shops and restaurants. Around these, it hopes to create new pedestrianized public spaces and parking facilities, and expects some of the rehabilitated buildings to be used for cultural and educational purposes, such as museums.

The company’s backers envision the rise of a new urban hub for the city, one which embraces the future while preserving the past.

“It’s not about destroying the old and building the new. On the contrary, it’s about preserving the old and bringing back the cultural heritage of the area, and creating the new hip area of Amman,” said Nasser Al Khaldi, the CEO of Jordan Dubai Properties, which recently bought a JD8.5 million controlling stake in Ahyaa Amman.

In the years since it was first set up, the company has been steadily buying up properties and working on its master plan, but has kept specific information about its projects heavily under wraps. In September, executives decided to unveil some of the plans after reaching two important milestones. The first was acquiring enough properties in the area to make sure the project would be viable; the second was gaining approval from the municipality.

But while GAM agreed in principle to let the project proceed, it gave no blanket permission to the developers, officials said. Instead, Ahyaa Amman was asked to provide more detailed studies, and to agree to submit work requests on a case-by-case basis for the properties it hopes to develop -- at least until a new municipal policy concerning heritage sites is drafted in 2010. Until that time the developer will not be allowed to carry out any demolitions, though it will be permitted to make minor structural alterations.

“What we have done is work on an interim policy for this specific project -- because there is a viable project and we want it to happen,” explained Bashar Haddaden, GAM’s director of special projects and investments. “We want it to drive and to be a pilot in its scale and location. But we want it to be guided, and not set a precedent that we would regret later on.”

Raed Kolaghassi, the managing director of 2K -- the architecture, planning and engineering firm providing the master plan for the Ahyaa Amman project -- said this interim process would be time consuming, but commended GAM’s decision.

“We presented a master plan to them. They liked the idea, but they don’t have a lot of regulations in place, so what they did was provide us with an interim process,” he said. “This a great thing because it will encourage development within this time period before the legislation is drawn up and approved, and will stop any more beautiful buildings in Amman from being torn down.”

Ahyaa Amman’s general manager, Saud Soror, said work had already begun on renovating and converting the Shaheen building on Rainbow Street into a 15-unit serviced apartment block, with a gym, laundry and restaurant. It will cater to corporate clients and should be completed by the end of 2009.

Soror stressed that 80 percent of the buildings his firm had acquired were unoccupied at the time of purchase, and that none would be demolished. “We want to bring them back to life. We want to clean them up to reveal the original buildings,” he said. Only two empty plots, measuring 4,000 square meters in total, would actually have new structures built on them, he added; they’re slated to be used for multi-story parking garages.

Khaldi believes that the First Circle area has lost a lot of the social and economic vibrancy it once had. Many of its original inhabitants chose to move out several decades ago. They left behind some of Amman’s grandest properties, many of which tell the story of the city, but now sadly sit empty. (See “Abandoned,” JO December 2008.)

“Unfortunately at a certain stage, they decided to leave the whole area and move to places like West Amman,” Khaldi said. “Their homes became neglected. What you have in the area today is some commercial space that has some life in it, and the rest of it is totally empty.”

Ahyaa Amman has already bought a number of historically valuable buildings, including the old British Embassy compound from the 1940s, which now houses the firm’s stunning office, and the house on Mango Street that belonged to Glubb Pasha, the British soldier best known for training and leading Transjordan’s Arab Legion in the 1940s and 50s. Plans for these buildings aren’t yet finalized; Malhas hopes the old embassy will house a restaurant and a boutique hotel, while the Glubb Pasha house is likely to be a commercial building.