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The Mecca province of Saudi Arabia is undergoing extensive urban regeneration, surpassing by far the building boom of the 1970s. Many of the new development proj-ects contributing to this boom were show-cased recently at an exhibition in Jeddah, for-mally opened by the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. Key to this regeneration are the expansion of the Jeddah Islamic Port and the King Abdul Aziz

International Airport, and the preservation and development of Jeddah’s historic Old Town, Al Balad, for which King Abdullah has approved a SAR3.5 billion ($935 million) grant.

Between the Old Town on the east and the port on the west, a dilapidated urban area of 64.6 million square feet (6 million sq m) near the cen-ter of the city has been designated by the Jeddah municipality for redevelopment and approved as a special development zone (SDZ) by the king.

In the southwestern part of this SDZ and abutting the port is roughly 19.4 million square feet (1.8 million sq m) of undeveloped, con-taminated land identified by developer Ziyad Zaidan as ideal for the Jeddah Free Trade City (JFTC). According to Zaidan, this privately funded project will be a “one-window B2B [business-to-business] trading gateway to the Islamic world” through which manufac-turers and suppliers worldwide will be able to sell efficiently into Muslim countries around the world.

Zaidan is a visionary for new towns and communities in Saudi Arabia, seeing sustain-able development opportunities in the deterio-rating environment. Born in Mecca, he earned bachelor and master of arts degrees in ar-chitecture from the University of Detroit, then a doctorate in new town development from L’Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

In 1975, he established in Saudi Arabia the IDEA Center, a conventional architecture and engineering consultancy, which by 1991 had evolved into his development company, IDEA Network. He later set up EcoVisions as a divi-sion of the company to push the boundaries of green design, to maximize the use of inte-grated environment technologies, and to pro-vide practical solutions to the full spectrum of global environmental concerns.

With a total of 15 million annual Hajj and Ummrah pilgrims coming through Jeddah ev-ery year, the city ranks fifth worldwide in num-ber of visitors. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing political pressure to dramatically increase its capacity to accommodate the world’s rapidly expanding Muslim population.

In response, it has begun a massive national infrastructure improvement program to increase airport capacity by opening the Madinah airport to international flights, and by dramatically ex-panding Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport. A high-speed intercity rail network will link Madinah, Jeddah, Mecca, and Riyadh, and intracity monorails will link the centers of these cities to high-speed rail hubs. Major develop-ments are also underway to increase the capac-ity and capability of the holy cities to deal with the massive influx of people during the annual Hajj—their organization, movement, safety, ac-commodation, feeding, and medical care. Stud-ies project that by 2015 to 2020, 60 million or

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more religious tourists could be visiting Saudi Arabia annually, and they will all make the trip through Jeddah. Many will be businessmen and businesswomen.

By the time the JFTC is operating in 2014 or 2015, the rail lines linking Jeddah, Madi-nah, Mecca, and Riyadh will be established and a new rail terminal will be shared with the port. In addition, a major station for Jed-dah’s monorail will be integrated into the pro-ject, effectively linking it directly to the airport and other parts of the inner city.

With spiritual obligation bringing millions and millions of religious tourists to the JFTC’s doorstep, the project has been conceived by EcoVisions to serve and capitalize on this ex-ceptional global customer base. Trade, a mainstay of Jeddah dating back to pre-Islamic days, has progressively increased since the advent of Islam and the Hajj and Ummrah rit-uals. The JFTC intends to build on this tradi-tion with three cross-pollinating development zones: an international exhibition and trading hub; a pilgrimage-targeted hospitality, mer-chandising, and entertainment center; and a digital village training center focused on edu-cating women through digital technologies for meaningful roles in the nation’s workforce.

The trading center, called Jedhattan, will house a permanent business-to-business ex-hibition and conference center where interna-tional trade and commercial delegations from around the world will promote, exhibit, and sell their nations’ goods. A total of 54 million square feet (5 million sq m) of Class A multi-use, high-rise development will take shape on a 2.2 million-square-foot (200,000-sq-m) foot-print to accommodate these delegations and their customers, as well as other commerce-related businesses and institutions and their supporting activities.

With its strategic position on the Red Sea, Jedhattan has been conceived by Zaidan to be the most effective and efficient means for for-eign manufacturers to import goods into Saudi Arabia, and for these goods in turn to be dis-tributed within the kingdom and exported to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Mid-dle East/North Africa (MENA) countries and, ultimately, to southeastern Europe and sub- Saharan Africa. Jedhattan was strongly in-fluenced by iconic international urban set-tings such as London’s Canary Wharf, Paris’s

La Défense, and New York City’s Manhattan, Zaidan says.

“JFTC offers a unique opportunity for a to-tally integrated community of commerce, busi-ness, and housing for a permanent and tran-sient community,” say Helmut Jahn, architect of Jedhattan. “Built in phases, the master plan allows for incremental yet self-contained units, served by an infrastructure matrix for service, waste management, recycling, and transportation.”

The ground level will be heavily land-scaped with natural and built elements pro-viding shade for pedestrian movement and encouraging connectivity. The 300-by-300-foot (90-by-90 m) parcels will allow construction of efficient, tall towers with multiple uses orga-nized around large atriums, intended to help create vertical communities.

The second zone, Jeddah Circle, will be the host environment and base for service in-dustries supporting trade. Using the theme of various Islamic cultures and integrating their respective styles, food, and ways of life, Jed-dah Circle will be geared to welcome Hajj and Ummrah pilgrims. It will be compliant with shari’a—Islamic law—and employ state-of-the-art, user-friendly technologies to provide in-formation, as well as cultural and educational entertainment to show how Islam spread his-torically through trade and commerce. Visitors will be taught about and reminded of the his-

A privately funded project proposed for a dilapidated urban area near the center of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Free Trade City will consist of three zones (below). Zone one, Jedhattan, will be an international exhibition and trading hub; zone two, Jeddah Circle, will be a hospitality, merchandising, and entertainment center; and zone three will be a training center. Jedhattan (site plan, above; model, facing page) is being designed by Chicago-based Murphy/Jahn Architects.

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Zone-1

Zone-2

Zone-3

Area Integral To JFTC Vision

JFTC Development Area

Special Development

Zone

tory and significance of the holy places and the performance of the Hajj and Ummrah rituals in Mecca and Madinah. Another vital feature will be specialized medical facilities and hospitals.

The third zone will be a digital village training center focused on educating women through digital technologies. Training will in-clude the administration and management of the whole of the Jeddah Free Trade City, simi-lar in concept to a hotel’s back-of-house func-tion, but at a much larger scale. Along with a new women’s college, the zone will include teaching, residential, and administration buildings and provide the technologies that will be employed for Jeddah Circle.

The Jeddah Free Trade City will be targeted at the following sectors:

Muslim countries that want to increase and streamline trade with other Muslim countries;

Western European, North American, Com-monwealth of Independent States, and Oce-ania countries that currently trade with indi-vidual Islamic countries in diverse locations but would benefit from a central point or fo-cus of trade;

Far Eastern countries whose product sales into Muslim countries are significant, includ-ing China, which has seen sales expand ex-ponentially in recent years; and

India, which would like to expand trade with Muslim countries.

According to Zaidan, too many large-scale projects in the Middle East have been con-ceived in search of quick gains—launched with much fanfare and adulation only to fail shortly thereafter because they have no sub-stance beneath the surface. To avoid this, the EcoVisions team has adapted innovative ap-proaches to large-scale land development for the JFTC that incorporate investment banking techniques and structured finance solutions to establish, test, and verify optimal land uses. Physical and socioeconomic development have been matched to establish a sound founda-tion for the project. National economics, private sector profitability, socioeconomics, sociocul-tural elements, the environment, and regional and global relevance are all major factors when considering sustainability, and EcoVisions has brought them all to the table for the JFTC. The EcoVisions team has used the project as a plat-form from which to spin off profitable ongoing downstream business ventures.

Following two decades of decline, Jeddah is in a dramatic state of resurgence, and the JFTC is expected to act as a catalyst for the ur-ban revitalization and economic regenera-tion of this ancient Arabian seaport. Adopt-ing an international perspective, the project is intended to create a new economic base for Jeddah rather than compete within the city’s existing economy. It will be an autono-mous, self-contained, independent urban dis-trict containing all basic infrastructure, utili-ties, networks, and other systems necessary to support high-quality urban living and thriv-ing international business activities.

“This Jeddah Free Trade City project is timely,” Monitor Group, a Cambridge, Massa-chusetts–based private global management consulting firm, reported in a September 2007 proposal for a feasibility study and implemen-tation strategy for the Jeddah Free Trade City. “Jeddah urgently requires modern urban com-mercial space, while the broader region is ripe

for major investment in commerce, logistics, hospitality, and entertainment. While Jeddah’s urban scale has expanded tremendously in the last 35 years, the development of the city’s infrastructure and built environment has proceeded haphazardly. In the same pe-riod, government and banking activities have ceased to serve their historical roles as driv-ers of economic vitality for the city, and Jed-dah’s traditional maritime trade connections have withered because of insufficient func-tional links between Jeddah Islamic Port and the rest of the urban economy.”

Resolving these and numerous other im-portant urban issues that have plagued Jed-dah for decades, the project is seen as a vital stimulant intended to trigger the city’s social, cultural, and economic revival, says Zaidan. By creating a new sustainable economic base for Jeddah, the project will provide much-needed employment across all social and economic demographics for a rapidly expand-

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ing, well-educated young Saudi population throughout the kingdom’s western region. The JFTC is expected to be a major economic driver in the revitalization of Jeddah’s central area and the restoration of the city’s historic position as the kingdom’s commercial capital. The project will be coordinated with the devel-opment programs and priorities of municipal, regional, and national governments to acceler-ate local development and elicit support from important regional players.

As an EcoVisions project, JFTC will be en-vironmentally friendly. New ecotechnologies and concepts are being integrated on a city-wide scale into the project’s design to achieve low energy consumption and the smallest car-bon footprint possible. Energy from wind, so-lar power, biofuels, and recycled waste are being studied. Clean technologies such as hy-drogen fuel cells will power transport of peo-ple through the project using personal trans-port systems and moving sidewalks to help achieve near-zero vehicle emissions.

Surrounded by water, the development will have its own sewage treatment plant and use

effluent normally discarded not only to help create gardens and a green, urban oasis, but also to support green roofs. These roofs will both constitute attractive gardens and help cool the roofs, thereby conserving energy and reducing air-conditioning costs. Water pumped from deep in the sea where water is cool will be used to help create a comfortable micro-climate. Except for the cost of pumping, this saltwater resource is free and will be used in hundreds of saltwater fountains and runnels. The JFTC will have the two things hardest to come by in the desert—plants and water.

Zaidan believes the JFTC has no true compet-itor because of its strategic location on the Red Sea and the size of its customer base. Although others might see Dubai, for example, as a com-petitor, Zaidan believes the emirate’s business activities are fundamentally different from those configured for the JFTC.

Although both are engaged in annual trade-based business, Dubai’s business is centered on short-term exhibits, and all trans-actions resulting from those exhibits are passed through local sales agents. In con-

trast, the JFTC will have a permanent ongoing exhibition of its clients’ goods and services, which will be interlaced with special exhibits, conferences, and seminars presenting innova-tions and technology developments relating to its clients. Local sales agents will not be in-volved in resulting sales at JFTC. More impor-tant, Dubai’s customer base is, and always will be, far smaller than the JFTC customer base, says Zaidan.

“This opportunity for growth and change [offered by the JFTC] in Jeddah is part of a broader context of socioeconomic develop-ment throughout the kingdom of Saudi Ara-bia and the Red Sea basin,” says the Moni-tor Group. “The ongoing progress of economic development and material prosperity in Saudi Arabia, driven by the rapid diversification and sophistication of economic activities, prom-ises to continue to create demand for com-mercial, logistical, hospitality, and entertain-ment services. Simultaneously, the growth of King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh will in-troduce Jeddah’s businesses to a diverse set of customers, suppliers, and competitors. More broadly, Jeddah is well positioned to serve as a connection between resources and opportunity in the Red Sea basin and markets in Europe and east Asia.”

BIZZIE FROST

MICHAEL KERBER

Jedhattan will include 54 million square feet (5 million sq m) of Class A multiuse, high-rise development (shown in early sketches, facing page, and models, left). A section through the city center (below) indicates the multiple connections among these striking urban forms.

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Reprinted with permission from Urban Land Middle East, Spring 2009. Published by ULI-UrbanLand Institute, 1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W., Suite 500W, Washington, DC 20007-5201

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