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By Kholoud Khalifa

Asleek new building in Sheikh Zayed City could be the next big thing in high-end home furnishings for Egypt. Located on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road and slated to open this June, Designopolis West is looking to corner a unique market in furnishings and interior design by offering all a home buyer would need to decorate their home, in one location. And, if all goes according to plan, 2011 will see the opening of Designopolis East in New Cairo near the new AUC campus.

The concept of creating a specialized home furnishings destination in Cairo began three years ago, says Mohsen El-Sehrawy, commercial director of Bonyan for Development and Trade, a subsidiary of Citadel Capital and the developer of Designopolis. In 2007, Bonyan purchased 116,000 square meters of land next to SODIC developments Allegria and Westown near Sixth of October City. When all four phases of construction are completed, Designopolis West will be leasing 60,000 square meters of land to 200 home furnishing and design retail stores.

The cost of the project was roughly LE 700 million, of which LE 300 million was used to purchase the plot of land, while another LE 300 million was spent on construction. The remaining LE 100 million was spent on the design, which was handled by renowned American architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM).

Designopolis’ focus is on Egpyt’s high-end homeowner market. “The idea of the project is to target families focusing more on the higher end of the market. We are looking at people who are young and newlyweds who just got homes and are looking at ways of furnishing,” says El-Sehrawy. Some of the well-known brands available at Designopolis West are Bo Concept, La Maison Coloniel and Roche-Bobois. On the way are brand names like Hastens, Tempur and Alessi. In addition to the home furnishings stores, Designopolis West will have a family entertainment center, an interactive museum for children, a bookstore, and a design school that will offer students courses in graphic and interior design.

For the company, building on the periphery of Cairo has distinct advantages over downtown: “To find the right places downtown would be a hassle. Stores are [far] apart, parking is difficult to find, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city isn’t a pleasant way to shop,” says El-Sehrawy. Plans are in place for a lounge and café area where designers and clients can meet in a relaxed setting.

“This project comes to provide a kind of convenience for furniture. More than that it becomes a destination; not only to shop, but to spend a nice day out in the open with their children,” El-Sehrawy says.

Bonyan knows it has a niche carved out in the home furnishings and interior design market. El-Sehrawy says, “To be honest with you, in terms of competition is concerned, we did a lot of research before we started working on this and we haven’t found anything similar in the region. There are similar concepts in Europe and Asia, but within this region there is no project that conveys this [] We are looking at any service that relates to home furnishers. These include anything from bathroom and kitchen accessories to floors and walls, dining rooms, doors and windows, lighting, home electronics, swimming pools, household fabrics, paints and furniture.”

Although this is a pilot project for Designopolis, Bonyan wants to solidify the brand and eventually expand regionally and globally by offering quality at every step. Part of Bonyan’s mission statement is to achieve sustainable profitability “not by cutting corners, but by delivering excellence.”

The global economic slowdown has affected Egypt’s construction and real estate sectors, but “we haven’t seen any slow down in phase performance, there was a negative sentiment in the market based on the propaganda and prices, but this hasn’t affected our sales,“ says El-Sehrawy.

Designopolis East — slated to be complete in 2011 — is to be built vertically, as opposed to the broad, horizontal layout of Designopolis West. It will be three floors high built on a base area of 16,000 square meters and will also lease 60,000 square meters to retailers.

Designopolis West is still very much a construction site with tractors and building materials everywhere. But the three furniture shops, Roche-Bobois, Bo Concept and La Maison Coloniel, that are already up and running have already made a strong showing. “We are doing much better than we expected. We have families coming in and purchasing for their new homes,” says a confident El-Sehrawy. bt