New Blue City CEO to re-energise Al Madina A’Zarqa
Times Friday, June 20, 2008 9:29:27 PM Oman Time
MUSCAT — Blue City Company 1 SAOC, the real estate development company tasked to deliver Phase 1 of Al Madina A’Zarqa, the most significant real estate infrastructure project in the Sultanate of Oman, has appointed Richard Russell as its new managing director and chief executive officer. Following the decision of Prof. Akhlaghi to pursue his personal aspirations, Russell has taken over the position from Prof. Fari Akhlaghi, who will now transition into a new role as an advisor to the board of directors on the project….
Meanwhile the battle as to who actually owns the project between the Bahraini company AAJH and Cyclone LLC continues. The higher court (where Cyclone successfully lodged an appeal following their defeat in court a couple of months ago) is due to rule in a few days on June 23rd on the validity of the injunction and thus the effective ownership of BlueCity.
Apparently the AAJH representatives and the Management of ASIT, including Anees Issa al Zadjali, Chairman of Al Sawadi Investment and Tourism Company (ASIT), are not really speaking. A contact working for Anees told me that after their victorious court ruling, AAJ tried to visit BCC1 to re-establish contact and find out what was going on, but he was not even allowed to enter the building. Meanwhile, not surprisingly given the price rises in cement and steel, the projected costs for phase 1 are now $2 billion, and the plans for the 27 hole golf course have been pared back to just 18 holes to save costs.
Watch this space. There’ll be more fireworks at Blue City over the next couple of weeks… I can certainly understand the motivation to battle it out when you're talking of a 70% share in the profits on a $20 billion development project...
