Following the completion of the prestigious Fahaheel Waterfront, Kuwaiti construction company Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading continues to press ahead with other high-profile projects which have been launched this year in Kuwait’s buoyant construction market.

These include the first phase of the Al Khiran Pearl City, the Al Hamra Tower and Mall complex, Cardiac and the Al Dhow Tower.
Among the largest projects in hand is the KD40 million ($138 million) phase 1 package on Al Khiran Pearl City. The 18-month contract covers infrastructure for 1,200 residential plots on 1.5 million sq m of land close to the border with Saudi Arabia.  
Ahmadiah started work on the project last May and expects to complete it by October next year. It involves laying of 49 km of sanitary sewer pipe, six km of microtunneling, 32 km of storm water pipes and 63 km of water supply and irrigation pipes (dia up to 400 mm); construction of three 40-m-high water reservoirs with a capacity of 2,600 cu m each and 54 substations; installation of power and telephone cables; and soft landscaping and road works, according to regional manager George Hage.
The client is the local La’Ala Al Kuwait Real Estate Company, which is the developer of the mixed-use seafront project.
Pearl City will be developed in phases over a total area of 6,500 hectares, and will eventually be home to about 50,000 residents. The consultant is a team of the UK’s Buro Happold with the local Gulf Consult.
Ahmadiah has also started work on the other projects, namely the Al Hamra Complex, Al Dhow Tower, the Cardiac Hospital.
The Al Hamra Tower and Mall Complex for the Al Hamra Real Estate Company will have a total built-up area of 235,000 sq m. Work on the mixed-use project – which includes a 60-storey tower – started last June and is due for completion in December 2007.
Ahmadiah started construction of the 34-storey Al Dhow Tower – which also includes a basement for car parking – last March and will complete it by March 2006. Al Mal Real Estate is the client on the high-finish office tower.
Work on the 26,000 sq m Cardiac Hospital, for the Ministry of Health, was started last June and will be completed in May 2006.
Meanwhile, work on the Al Awadi Complex project for the Real Estate Investment Company, is expected to be completed by next April. The 34-storey tower, which comprises a commercial complex and a three-level basement car park, offers a total built-up area of 55,000 sq m.  The pentagon-shaped building featues a stainless steel dome nested by a wide stainless steel circular saucer-shaped roof roof.  Projacs is the project manager.
Set for completion by the end of this month is the five-star Marina Mall Hotel. Ahmadiah has been the general contractor and the project manager for the 95-suite hotel project, which was started in October 2002. The client is United Realty Company.
The Safir Marina Hotel, as it is called, is due to open by the year-end. The hotel’s facilities include a health centre offering aerobics classes, two tennis courts, three swimming pools, a squash court and a beauty saloon, in addition to conference and banqueting facilities and a business centre. Dining choices at the hotel include the Eurasian cuisine restaurant Atlantis, the international Six Palms and the Nautilus pool bar.
Set for completion shortly is the Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS) headquarters. This 24-storey office tower offers a total built-up area of 66,000 sq m.  Highlights of the project include a five-storey-high atrium space – 60-m long – meeting rooms on each floor and a large meeting room on the 21st floor. The client is the Wafra Real Estate Company.
Among other projects Ahmadiah has completed this year are the Fahaheel Waterfront scheme and the Arraya Centre.
The Fahaheel Waterfront project, undertaken for client Tamdeen Real Estate Company, stretches along 2 km of the Fahaheel seafront and comprises an entertainment pier building, a market pier building, a bazaar mall, a lighthouse tower, boat workshops, a leisure service building with four cinemas, restaurants, a central cooling plant tower, an ice factory, a 6,500 sq m lagoon area, a marina for 100 yachts with two harbours (one for leisure boats and the other for fishermen), 50,000 sq m of roads and a 500-slot car park.  This involved a total built-up area of 40,000 sq m.
“Ahmadiah took up the responsibilities of general contractor and project manager of the project and has ensured the timely completion of the project – this October,” says Hage.
The highly sophisticated 33-storey Arraya Centre project for Salhia Real Estate Company offers a total built-up area of 65,000 sq m. It comprises a top-class shopping mall, a convention hall building, the 310-room four-star Marriott Courtyard Hotel, a separate seven-level car-park and two 33 m, two-level bridges, each connecting the car park to the mall.
Ahmadiah, one of the Gulf’s leading contractors, was established 25 years ago at a time when Kuwait was rapidly expanding on the wave of oil boom, developing its urban town, coastline suburbs, roads and other types of infrastructure, in line with its first master plan of 1952.
As one of Kuwait’s oldest contractors, it has earned a reputation for its speed, exceptional quality, the ability to overcome challenging technical problems and flexibility in understanding the various requirements of the clients and their interests. It is this reputation that has earned Ahmadiah a variety of repeat clients and impressive growth.
Says Hage: “Over the years, Ahmadiah has developed into a contractor that tackles just about anything – from power stations to roads to skyscrapers – and has given shape to many of Kuwait’s most striking landmarks as well.”
Ahmadiah has built several prestigious structures in the country with exceptional quality and substantial time and cost savings to its reputable clients in the private and public sectors.
These include large infrastructure projects (the Sixth Ring Road, sanitary renovation, airport runway and bridges), industrial projects (thermal power stations, cement factories, flour mill silos), state-of-the art palaces (Bayan Palace and Amir Diwan), sophisticated hospitals, important headquarters (Arab Fund, Gulf Investment Corporation and Kuwait Airways Corporation), five-star hotels (Meridien, Marriott and Hilton Resort Mangaf); banks (Kuwait Finance House, Al Ahli, Burgan, and Commercial Bank of Kuwait), malls and commercial centres (Arraya, Marina Mall, Salhia, Al Fanaar, Al Bustan), office and residential towers, waterfronts (Al Sharq and Salmiya, Fahaheel).
Ahmadiah states that it is one among the very few – if not the only company – to whom the private sector in Kuwait entrusts with total cost-plus jobs.
Ahmadiah has a truly international perspective with a substantial client base throughout the Middle East. The company has offices in Lebanon and Qatar and looks on the opportunity to start works in the UAE and Iraq.