Just west of Muscat Airport is the project owned by Omagine Inc (OMAG.PK) which is partially owned by its Chairman Frank J Drohan, Omagine and Oman Government entity Royal Court Affairs (RCA); this is just under 1 sq km. It has, they say, received finance approval earlier in 2016. This project has been under process since 2007 (opens as PDF) according to their website, when a partnership was formed with J&P Construction. Amongst their Directors is Alan M Matus, who apparently was a director with USA Presidential candidate and reality TV personality Donald Trump.
A similar substantial project in Barka west of Muscat, previously called ‘Blue City’ is now slightly smaller as its owner since the end of 2015, Muscat Finance Corporation, has provided 1.5sqkm of the 32sq km plot to “Muscat National Development & Investment Company” (ASAAS) . The land will be a sea front entertainment and leisure destination,
part of Oman’s thrust towards leisure and tourism as an alternative income source to oil.
The land in Barka owned by ASAAS is intended be planned by Surbana Jurong, the Singapore based consultancy whose office in Dubai already oversees a number of substantial projects elsewhere in the Middle East. ASAAS hope that ‘a renowned American company ‘based out of Orlando’ Florida will operate the park.
Surbana Jurong identified Oman, along with Mexico, Mauritius and Panama, for residential townships and industrial parks before its current CEO, Teo Eng Cheong, was appointed last year. Oman is certainly focusing on larger leisure projects to add income to its GDP. Reported by Oman Observer.
ASAAS, owned by various Oman Government entities, head office is in the same complex as the Oman Government ‘asset and destination’ organisation OMRAN . Both ASAAS and OMRAN operate in similar areas with ASAAS having announced a Hilton Garden Inn, a second Steigenberger Hotel’s InterCityHotel, and multi-use facility in Al Khuwair on top of the new budget airline ‘Salam Air’.
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