Arada partners with Syrian fund to launch $7 billion Damascus district

Arada, a Sharjah-based real-estate developer supported by Saudi and UAE royal investors, signed an agreement with Syria’s recently formed sovereign wealth fund to develop a new district in Damascus valued at $7 billion. The partnership illustrates the flow of Gulf money into Syria’s post-war rebuilding, a strategy that dovetails with a broader U.S. aim to keep the country out of Iran’s orbit. It also marks a partial return for a leading regional investor: co-founder Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, whose father Prince Alwaleed bin Talal once owned the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus before selling it in 2018 to a frontman for the deposed Syrian president. Facing a slowing home market, UAE developers view Syria as an international growth opportunity, echoed by Dubai mogul Mohamed Alabbar’s July pledge of at least $20 billion for housing, resorts and schools in Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia.