Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company

Infobox Company
name= Heliopolis Company for Housing and Development
Ex. "Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company"

type= Private
genre=
foundation= February 2, 1906
founder= Édouard Empain [cite web |url=http://www.egy.com/landmarks/maadi/96-11-16.shtml |title=When Maadi Replaced Heliopolis |accessdate=2008-03-10 |author=Samir Raafat |date=1996-11-16 |work=Egyptian Mail]
location_city= flagicon|Egypt 28 Ibrahim El Lakani street, Heliopolis, Cairo
location_country= Egypt
location=
locations=
area_served=
key_people= Mohamed El Shahwy (Chairman of the Board)
industry=
products=
services= Till December 31, 1991 [cite web |url=http://www.heliopoliscompany.com/images/heliopoliscompanyprofile.pdf |title=Company Profile |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format=pdf |pages=01 |language=Arabic] :
Heliopolis’ tram management.
Utilities management for Heliopolis. (ie: water, power, roads...)
revenue=
operating_income=
net_income= increase EGP 74,280,000 (2006)
(US$ 13,170,000) [cite web |url=http://www.heliopoliscompany.com/images/heliopoliscompanyprofile.pdf |title=Company Profile |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format=pdf |pages=13 |language=Arabic]
assets= EGP 74,171,000,000 (2006)
(US$ 13,150,000,000) [cite web |url=http://www.heliopoliscompany.com/images/heliopoliscompanyprofile.pdf |title=Company Profile |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format=pdf |pages=03 |language=Arabic]
equity=
owner=
num_employees= 933 [cite web |url=http://www.heliopoliscompany.com/images/heliopoliscompanyprofile.pdf |title=Company Profile |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format=pdf |pages=14 |language=Arabic]
parent=
divisions=
subsid=
slogan=
homepage= [http://www.heliopoliscompany.com HeliopolisComapny.com]
footnotes=
intl=

The Cairo Electric Railways & Heliopolis Oases Company ( _ar. شركة سكك حديد مصر الكهربائية و واحات عين شمس), is the original name of the Heliopolis Company for Housing and Development ( _ar. شركة مصر الجديدة للإسكان و التعمير), a company formed in Cairo in 1906 in a partnership between a consortium of Belgian developers led by Édouard Empain and Boghos Nubar Pasha, son of the former Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Nubarian.

History

Though a railway company by name, the company played just as great a role as a property development company once the company acquired a very large area (25 square kilometers) northeast of Cairo, where the ancient city of Heliopolis once stood.

On that land the company built, in effect, a new city called the Heliopolis Oasis with rail and tramway links to the centre of Cairo. Not only did the company build a great number of houses and apartments, but also the Heliopolis Palace Hotel (which is now the Egyptian Presidential Palace), restaurants, shops, churches, mosques, and hospitals. Upon completion some parts of the project were sold off as separate companies.

Heliopolis Palace Hotel

History

On December 1, 1910, Egypt celebrated the official launch of Africa's most luxurious hotel. Conceived by Belgian architect Ernest Jaspar, the hotel boasted 400 rooms including 55 private apartments.
Its banquet halls were amongst the biggest anywhere. The utilities were the state of the art technology of the time. All had been constructed and put together by the contracting firms Leon Rolin & Co. and Padova, Dentamaro & Ferro, the biggest two civil contractors in Egypt. Siemens & Schuepert of Berlin fitted the hotel's web of electric cables and installations.

Design

As though intentional, it’s severe, almost forbidding exterior contrasted sharply with the extravagance of the interior. A 1912 visitor recounts: "Beyond the reception offices are two lavishly decorated rooms, in the Louis XIV and Louis XV styles respectively and then comes the central hall, which is a dream of beauty and symmetry. Here the architecture, which is responsible for so many wonderful effects in Heliopolis, reaches its artistic zenith. Damascus-made Oriental lamps hung from every corner and cranny hang."

King Albert I (King of Belgium), who stayed in the hotel with his wife Queen Elisabeth for a month, said "C'est une merveille!" upon entering the main hall.
The main hall, which was almost 589 meters², had a 55 meter-wide dome, designed by Alexander Marcel of the French Institute and decorated by Georges Claude, was carpeted with the finest oriental rugs and fitted with large floor-to-ceiling mirrors, draperies and a large marble fireplace. Twenty-two Italian marble columns connected the parquet to the ceiling. To one side of the hall there was the dining room, which seated 150 guests, and to the other was the billiard hall with two full-sized Thurston tables, as well as a priceless French one. The hotel's mahogany furniture were supplied by Maple's Furniture (London).
The hotel's area was so large, that a railway system was installed, running through the hotel; passing by offices, kitchens, refrigerators, storerooms and the staff housing. cite web |url=http://www.egy.com/landmarks/98-03-19.shtml|title=The Heliopolis Palace Hotel |accessdate=2008-03-10 |author=Samir Raafat |date=1998-03-19 |work=Cairo Times]

World Wars and after

During World War I and II, the hotel was transformed into a hospital for British soldiers.
After World War II, air travel reduced the average tourist stay to a few days. As tourism became a mega-industry, massive hotels emerged in Egypt with interiors calculated on the basis of return per square meter. Unable to compete, the hotel became less popular.

Becoming a Presidential Palace

In the 1980s, which marks the beginning of the Mubarak regime, the Heliopolis Palace Hotel was declared the headquarters of the new presidential administration, after becoming the location of various government departments for over 10 years.

Cairo International Airport

On October, 2003, a presidential decree stated that the Heliopolis Company for Housing and Development would receive a 1695 acre piece of land in New Cairo, as a compensation for the land that was taken to build the Cairo International Airport. [cite web |url=http://www.heliopoliscompany.com/images/heliopoliscompanyprofile.pdf |title=Company Profile |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format=pdf |pages=01 |language=Arabic]

See also

* Egyptian Presidential Palace
* Heliopolis
* Heliopolis style
* 1906 in rail transport

References

External links

* [http://www.heliopoliscompany.com Heliopolis Company for Housing and Development’s homepage]