A major upheaval to the east of Casablanca: the former Anfa airport, closed since 2007, is undergoing a major transformation. Covering an area of 350 hectares, it is a new town centre Casa Anfa, both an urban complex and a 100-hectare green lung. The aim is to build a place to live for 100,000 people, who will be joined during the day by the same number of working people, in a vast complex of multifunctional districts covering an area of 4,300,000 m2 building land. Casa Anfa will eventually have 2,300,000 m2 of housing and 1,300,000 m2 office space.
First tranche
This year, almost all the developers are completing the first stages of their work. A long list of international construction groups have invested in the site, from France's Bouygues Immobilier to Belgium's Thomas&Piron, as well as the Moroccan-Saudi Asma Invest and local groups Walili, CGI and Yasmine Immobiliers. CGI and Bouygues Immobilier have already handed over the keys to the first homes.
The first heart of Casa Anfa will be unveiled this year with the first two residential areasAnfa Club and Anfa Cité de l'Air, together with an 18-hectare park offering a range of facilities including a skate park, themed play areas, sports trails, kiosks and restaurants. A former runway from the old airport will be restored and used as a promenade lined with water walls and fountains. It will run the full length of the metropolitan park, which will eventually cover 50 hectares.
A vibrant urban heart
The educational infrastructure is already in place, with the Ecole Française Internationale (EFI) moving into the area last year and another school group, La Résidence, due to open a nursery and primary school next autumn. Negotiations are also in progress for setting up a higher education establishment. On the health front, the construction of a clinic has already been given the go-ahead, and discussions are reportedly underway for the installation of a second facility.
A call for tenders has been launched for the development of the "living urban heart" of the new housing estate. This would be an entertainment and shopping centre covering almost 42,000 m², on the site of the former airport terminal and the first control tower of the old Anfa airport. These two old buildings will be preserved and integrated into the new centre. The entertainment centre will also include a leisure component (cinema, bowling, skating rink, fitness centre, etc.) as well as a hypermarket covering an area of around 5,000 m2. It will also have an underground car park with a minimum capacity of 800 spaces.
A future financial hub
But what the developers are looking at most closely is the part of this first tranche that concerns the business district, and in particular the new headquarters of Casa Finance Citythe financial centre of Casablanca. A highly ambitious development that is in the process of welcoming its first residents in a highly coveted tower designed by American architect Thom Mayne - winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2005 - and boasting high environmental quality standards. 80 % of its 20,000 m2 of available offices have already been reserved.
The same cannot be said for the rest of the business district, where development seems to be slower. While several financial institutions such as Attijariwafa bank, Banque Populaire and CIMR have recently launched their construction projects, the Moroccan bank BMCE Bank of Africa has finally abandoned its tower project to set up its headquarters in Rabat. As a result, the business district is still far from full.
While work on developing the second section of the site is in progress, the Anfa Urbanisation and Development Agency has launched a project to develop the site. new calls for tender for residential, office and hotel developments.
The site has on its accessibility to successfully turn Casablanca eastwards: the development of new traffic routes and the provision of public transport services should make it easier to sell residential plots. The first tramway line, which came into service in 2012, already crosses the project, and an RER line is due to be built soon, with several stations located in Casa Anfa.
