Egypt’s Mogamma el-Tahrir to be transformed into luxury hotel

Work is underway to convert Cairo’s Tahrir complex, an iconic government building, into an ultra-luxurious international hotel, according to local reports, in a joint venture between UAE and US companies.

The five-star Cairo House hotel will feature 500 rooms and a swimming pool on its roof, and situated in the heart of the Egyptian capital.

Tahrir – known colloquially by Egyptians as the Mogamma (the ‘Complex’) – was once the home of much of Egypt’s government offices and made famous in the Arab world by the Adel Emam comedy ‘The Terrorist and the Kebab’, where a hapless Egyptian man confronts the country’s notorious bureaucracy.

The building became synonymous with Egypt’s vast and often incompetent bureaucracy until the government vacated the building in 2021 and at its height, the 14-storey complex housed some 30,000 government employees in 1,350 rooms. It was allegedly capable of hosting up to 100,000 people. 

The new development is headed by an American-Emirati alliance involving Global Ventures, Oxford Capital Group and Al-Otaiba Investment Company, in association with Marriott International and Egypt’s Tourism Investment Company, who have invested around $200 million (EGP 6 billion) into the project.

It is part of the Egyptian government’s national plan to attract foreign investment amid attempts to restructure the economy. This includes redeveloping Cairo’s historic Downtown area, where the Mogamma is located. 

The Egyptian economy has traditionally been inward-oriented, highly regulated and controlled by the military, resulting in rampant corruption and the creation of a system of economic patronage.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has mostly continued this trend since being made president following a 2013 coup, the Egyptian economy, and tourism in particular, began to flatline due to the Covid-19 pandemic and regional events. 

The IMF then issued an ultimatum to the Egyptian government that it must at least partially restructure its economy or receive no more help from the organisation. Since then, Cairo has taken some steps, including grand plans to attract foreign investment.

However, while projects such as Cairo House might help the local economy in Cairo and lead to the creation of 500 new jobs, normal Egyptians are struggling to afford basic necessities amid inflation and a soaring rise in the cost of living standards.

These difficulties have been compounded by cuts to key subsidies such as fuel, bread and electricity, which has mostly affected the poor.

This has led to accusations that the Egyptian government is once again putting the interests of rich foreigners ahead of the people, with critics pointing to the lack of growth in personal wealth among Egyptians despite grand projects, such as the construction of the New Administrative Capital. 

The Mogamma is one of Cairo’s most famous contemporary buildings, it sits just off Tahrir Square, which was the site of Egypt’s revolution against dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.