Cairo Wants to Turn Fear and Infamy Into Prime Real Estate
The former Interior Ministry complex is finally getting a revamp as part of an effort to transform the downtown area of Egypt’s capital.
Riot police during clashes with Muslim Brotherhood members in downtown Cairo in 2013.
Photographer: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
It was a building you’d want to avoid walking past, let alone find yourself inside. But a Cairo landmark that housed Egypt’s notorious security service may now finally turn into a place to hang out, shop and even willingly spend the night.
Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund said it plans to turn the former Interior Ministry headquarters into a mixed-use destination that includes retail, technology hubs, a business school campus and a hotel. It’s part of a broader push to transform buildings that had been synonymous with dysfunction, bureaucracy and staid institutions into prime real estate.