Photo: The new Metropolitan City Center (left) and the existing Metropolitan Palace Hotel (right).

In December 2002, ACC was awarded a $74M contract to build the Metropolitan City Center commercial development in Beirut. The project is located in Sin El Fil on a 13,550 m² plot adjacent to the existing Metropolitan Palace Hotel.

The 110,000 m² project includes a 48,000 m² underground parking area, a shopping mall, hotel rooms & suites, furnished apartments, a spa, a nightclub, a bowling center, several outlets and a helipad. Other facilities are a large banquet hall that fits 2,700 persons in 40m x 60m clear spans, and a 160 m pedestrian bridge linking the new tower to the existing hotel.

The 30 story, 130m high building includes 6 basements, a ground floor, 6 technical floors, 19 typical floors, 2 penthouse floors, a restaurant floor and roof. The foundations consist of a 9,000m3 raft.

ACC is responsible for structural, architectural, mechanical electrical and plumbing (MEP), interior finishing and landscaping works.

The project will be carried out in two phases. The first-phase development will cover the construction of shopping malls, banquet hall, pedestrian bridge, car parks and driveways, access ramps, plant rooms, bowling centre and related facilities. Phase 2 will include the construction of the tower, helipad and related works.

The client is Metropolitan City Center Company (part of the Al Habtoor Group) and the consultant is Conser Consulting Engineers. The short contract duration of 20 months make this a challenging fast track project.