Offshore Centre Cancels Extension Plan, Major Real Estate Project

Rachel Walsh

6 January 2009

Prince Albert of Monaco has halted plans for the construction of a promontory from the Principality’s coast, the foundation for a €10 billion commercial real estate project. Monaco's answer to Dubai’s Palm Plan was set to get underway at the end of next month but has been disbanded due to the current economic climate and the Prince’s environmental concerns.

The project was to accommodate hotels, shops, entertainment venues and living space for 2,000 residents. ''The international crisis has forced us to seek better financial guarantees, more security,'' the Prince told the AustralianForeign Press, adding, ''In the current climate it would be irresponsible to launch a project of this scale''.

Prince Albert also told the newswire that the current designs had fallen short of his hopes in terms of environmental safeguards.

The Prince has not ruled out new plans for the expansion of Monaco's coast in future, though no alternative plans are under consideration, a spokesperson for the minister of state told Wealthbriefing.

The extension of the island was an ambition close to his father’s heart and the monarch was said to be naming the finished site after his late mother, Princess Grace of Monaco, née Kelly, according to The Times.

Prince Rainier had envisaged the construction of a promontory on concrete embankments but his son preferred the more environmentally friendly idea of an extension on top of 50 metre high pylons.

Potential developers, who were courted by the principality’s government for almost three years after its 2006 call for backers for the Offshore Urban Expansion Programme, are thought to have spent millions on creating proposals which will now come to nothing, the UK daily said.

In a statement in September, the minister of state said that there were two preferred contenders in the bidding war for the development of the artificial peninsula: the Monte Carlo Development Company, a consortium which included UK architects Foster and Partners, and Monte Carlo Sea Land, which included UK architect Daniel Libeskind.

These two were chosen above five other groups which also submitted proposals to Prince Albert. Despite the Prince’s more recent comment, the minister said the above bidders were selected because they met the planning specifications set out by the Principality, including explanations of how the fragile local marine environment would be protected. The successful bidder was due to be announced before Christmas.

No such announcement was made and it seems that even these qualifications are not enough to allow the project to go ahead in the face of global economic meltdown.