Four major projects in Jeddah have picked up top honours in the Cityscape Saudi Arabia Real Estate Awards, for their outstanding contribution to real estate development and investment for both built and future projects in the Kingdom.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner held on Sunday night in Jeddah in the presence of international investors, developers, government and investment authorities, leading architects and key industry decision makers.

"Across all of the awards we wanted to recognise projects that had innovative and sustainable design, functionality with efficiency and we wanted to reward designs that showed cultural as well as environmental sensitivity," said Deep Marwaha, exhibition director, Cityscape Saudi Arabia.

The awards were split into five categories: Best Waterfront Development – Future; Best Commercial Retail – built; Best Commercial Retail – Future; Residential Project – Future and Best Urban Design and Master Planning Award.

The judging panel comprised Alan Hall, a special counsel in the Riyadh office of leading regional law firm Al Tamimi & Company; Dr Aly Khorshid, Islamic Finance scholar and Shariah consultant and director of Islamic studies at AcademyUK.org; Jurgen E. Herre, head of Hines Middle East and North Africa and R. Veronica Mendieta, chairwoman and chief executive officer of the internationally renowned Developers & Builders Alliance.

The Best Waterfront Development – Future Award was clinched by Emaar, The Economic City, the master planner and developer of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).

It was in recognition of their stunning waterfront village Bay La Sun Residential City which is being designed to be a complete social unit with homes, schools, medical facilities, offices, shopping and entertainment all integrated into one community.

The Best Residential – Future Award also went to Emaar, The Economic City for the Hawadi district development within King Abdullah Economic City.

The 870 hectare community will host the first mid-income development within KAEC and comprises 22,000 dwelling units and the associated religious, educational, health and civic facilities.

Other award winning projects included the Al Ajlan Tower project in Riyadh, the Al Andalus Mall in Jeddah which was considered the best ‘built’ retail development and US architect Davis Brody Bond Aedas for their comprehensive design contributions to the Jeddah redevelopment master plan.

The awards were sponsored by Citiled, a leader in LED Mediafacade concept and design, in co-ordination with the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

"With over 800 active real estate projects worth in excess of $500 billion, Saudi Arabia will witness dramatic change over the next 5 years and beyond, especially in Jeddah," said Gustavo Eli, president of Citiled.

"Citiled chose to sponsor the Cityscape Saudi Arabia Real Estate Awards as we realize that this event has now set the benchmark for future developments in the Kingdom to follow," he added.-TradeArabia News Service