Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who attended the signing ceremony, said the project to develop and rehabilitate the Tahrir Complex in Downtown Cairo is the first model of adaptive reuse of government buildings, a cabinet statement said.

The US consortium is made up of Global Ventures, Oxford Capital, and Al-Otaiba Investments.

CEO of Oxford Capital Group, LLC, John W. Rutledge; Board Chairman of Global Business Ventures Randall Langer; head of the Business Development Sector at Al-Otaiba Investments Amr Shoukry; and Amr Elhamy, the executive director of the Egypt Sub-Fund for Tourism, Real Estate Investment, and Antiquities Development signed the agreement.

Along with Madbouly, Hala El-Said, the minister of planning and economic development and the CEO of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, as well as Ayman Soliman, the executive manager of the fund, were also in attendance.

Madbouly asserted the government’s keenness on implementing this project in a way better than similar development projects that were carried out by the consortium in the United States and Europe, the Cabinet said.

The premier also stressed the necessity of finalising the project as soon as possible to be the first model of the reuse of historical buildings in a modern way, a matter that increases its real historical value and returns.

For their part, members of the consortium hoped that this project would be the starting point for further work in Egypt.

During the ceremony, El-Said said the deal to upgrade the historical building came after an international bid involving various local and international companies.

She added that the fund’s strategy seeks to lure more investors to pump investments into Egypt and meet their needs, highlighting efforts exerted by the government for developing the country’s basic and technological infrastructure, and introducing radical economic reforms.

El-Said stressed that Egypt is on its way to achieve great things based on its development plans that aim to implement the country’s 2030 Vision.

In September last year, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree to cancel the public benefit status of a number of public properties, including the complex and the headquarters of the National Democratic Party (NDP) that was torched in 2011.

The decree moves the ownership of these public properties to the Sovereign Wealth Fund that was established in 2018 so that unexploited state buildings are re-used.

In remarks last year, Minister of Housing Assem El-Gazzar said that the seven buildings and their plots will be used according to the requirements of the areas where they are located.

The 14-storey Tahrir complex was founded in the late forties in downtown Cairo. Hosting tens of thousands of employees, the complex used to provide all government services for citizens.