By- Suzie-Q @ 10:00 AM MST
From: Carpetbagger Report
Baghdad: a shining city on a hill?
Posted May 5th, 2008 at 9:15 am
We learned two weeks ago that an American company is moving forward with a half-billion dollar project: the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a “massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland.”
Baghdad’s “Entertainment Experience” will reportedly occupy (no pun intended) 50 acres in the heart of downtown, adjacent to the Green Zone. Jonathan Stein raised the point on the minds of many: “Sure. A massive Disneyland-style amusement park, operated for American profit, plunked in the middle of Baghdad — that won’t be a target for hostilities. Not at all.”
As it turns out, other developers are willing to bet on a Baghdad rebound as well.
Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.
That’s all part of a five-year development “dream list” — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad’s future.
But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told The Associated Press.
For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a “zone of influence” around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.
A Navy captain who led the team that created the development plan said a deal for a new Marriot has already been completed.
There are a couple of concerns associated with these plans. OK, more than a couple.
Clearly, this is part of a long-term gamble. Investors no doubt realize that Baghdad is as deadly a city as exists on earth right now, and there’s no end in sight to the violence. U.S. business interests that are considering Iraq’s future have been led to believe a rebound is inevitable. We’ll see.
But in the interim, even the possibility has driven real estate prices through the roof.
Even now — with violence in Baghdad again creeping up — the faint hints of the development plan have driven up the Green Zone’s already sky-high real estate prices.
Land that a few years ago was going for $60 a square meter on 50-year leases in the zone is now going for up to $1,000 a square meter, American officials say.
Yeah, I’m sure locals are thrilled about Baghdad property they can no longer afford.
For that matter, developers have some logistical problems to consider, such as the absence of any kind of local infrastructure.
“There is no sewer system, no working power system. Everything here is done on generators. No road system repair work. There are no city services other than the minimal amount we provide to get by,” Karnowski said.
Sounds like it might be tough to build a Marriot under those circumstances.
And then, of course, there’s the question of how actual Iraqis in Baghdad might feel about Western-style hotels, condos, and shopping coming in and taking over their downtown. Given that there’s already a wee bit of resentment towards the U.S. now, I can’t help but wonder if this might make matters considerably worse.
Indeed, I’m not even sure why the Pentagon is involved with this in the first place. If the Defense Department is going to take on economic development projects, should basic utilities be higher on the list than this?
Spencer Ackerman concluded that Iraqis “experience shortages of water, electricity, fuel, cooking oil, medical care, security and more. The rise of this hotel compound will drain resources away from a desperate population.”
What could possibly go wrong?
