BEIRUT — Mohammed Saleh is convinced: If he builds it, Lebanese expatriates will come.
The Beirut-based developer envisions a 1.3-square-mile artificial island shaped like a cedar tree as a major attraction off Lebanon’s coast.
The massive chunk of dredged seabed or transported earth — converted into an $8 billion paradise with luxury villas, apartments, shops, restaurants, white-sand beaches, parks, schools and hospitals — would nurture national pride, says Saleh, chairman of Noor International Holding.
It’s the kind of mega-project that gave Arab boomtown Dubai its outsized profile but left it drowning in debt. Dubai boasts several artificial islands, so the project, which is still far from securing Lebanese government approvals, is not unique to Lebanon. But it’s drawing sharp criticism.
Skeptics run the gamut from a coalition of 25 groups worried about the environmental impact of dredging enough seabed or quarrying enough land to build an island to some prominent Lebanese economists such as Louis Hobeika, who doubts funding will be stable.
But Saleh says Cedar Island is the kind of self-financed gamble the nation needs to lure back wealthy Lebanese who moved abroad as they grew weary of conflict.
