BEIRUT: Developing real estate in Beirut has its undeniable pitfalls.  In the downtown of the Lebanese capital, major projects have recently been delayed for up to one year. That happened already in 2007 when the city center was a hostage in political disagreements – but in 2011, the culprit behind project slowdowns was not demonstrations and anti-government sit-ins.

The reason for the delays in a number of downtown Beirut building projects resides much deeper in the city’s past: its Phoenician, Roman, and Byzantine history. Several developments of ritzy apartments, fancy offices, and mixed-use commercial buildings in the upscale area are behind schedule because basement excavations have yielded archeological finds that, in this city, can easily be two or more millennia old.

While real estate developers are reluctant to go on the record with information on the value of the affected projects and the expected rates of financial returns that they had promised their investors and may not be able to deliver, some developers are quick in saying that archeology-related project stoppages cost them millions of dollars every year. They also claim that these real estate development delays have a negative impact on the Lebanese economy.   

However, some experts in the field of archeology and preservation acknowledge that the work on the project sites is often progressing slower than it could and attribute this to a shortage in the number of qualified professionals which the responsible government agency, the Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) attached to the Ministry of Culture, can call upon.

PRESERVING THE PAST

In central Beirut, the conflicts of interest potentials between real estate development and reclamation of history are particularly high. This is because central Beirut represents the rare case where an urban area with previous dense building stock on historic ground has become available for new construction projects after the 1975 to 89 conflict left many blocks in the downtown in a state where buildings were deemed to be unsalvageable.

After years of inactivity in developing parts of the torn-down city center, a wave of new developments is ongoing in the downtown. With these projects, the expectations of high profits for developers and immediate economic impulses for Lebanese business clash with the aims of developing long-term cultural attractions and with the nation’s existing preservation laws.   

According to Lebanese law, it is mandatory for developers to notify the DGA before they embark on any construction work in downtown Beirut.

The DGA then will have supervisory authority of the site throughout the excavation period, and if ancient ruins are found, it steps in to excavate, map and document the dig and salvage significant antiquities that might be discovered.

This process can take from a few months to several years and some developers reject it as time-consuming and costly.

When a construction project does unearth signs of antique remnants, the DGA appoints archeologists to undertake the necessary excavations and the site developer is responsible to finance their work, according to Assaad Seif, Coordinator of Archaeological Research and Excavations at the DGA.

Hans Curvers, a Dutch heritage consultant who has been working in Lebanon for over 16 years, says the problem in such excavations lies in the intricate work conducted by the few qualified archeologists operating at the DGA.

“Archeologists have always been a pain in the neck for developers,” Curvers said. He added that developers are abiding by the law but archeological excavation affects them.