another titanic down

source gulf times text and picture


The ‘Titanic’ residential-cum-commercial complex in Musheireb will be gone soon too, as part of the planned demolition of the area, as eviction notices have been served on the tenants to leave by October 1.
However, residents and shopkeepers of the 69-shop, 77-flat compound say although they knew they would have to go soon judging the pace of demolition nearby, the time given is too short to move especially during Ramadan.
The eviction notice, handed out on Wednesday evening just after Iftar, carry the stamp of the Acquisition Department of the Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning and urge all to move out before October 1.
A previous such notice was handed to tenants in January. Back then, the building owner Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Jassim al-Thani had said the notice to vacate the premises in 20 days (by February 10) was too short, after an outcry by the tenants.
“Following the attempts to seek time, we were told by the landlord’s office to continue until 2010, which maintained that they won’t ask us to leave until they get their own building compensation,” a trader of hardware material said yesterday.
Building owners and shopkeepers in the densely-populated Musheireb have been getting compensations as they move out from the Land Acquisition Department of the Urban Planning & Development Authority since 2007 when the mission to start clearing the area for a project of Qatar Foundation gathered momentum.
“We knew that we would have to move out one day. All the other buildings at the back of Titanic complex have been demolished already. Its just impossible to leave by October 1 with all the stock,” another trader, also a hardware dealer for 15 years and a Qatar resident of 17 years told Gulf Times.
Although following the uncertainty since January the landlord’s office has been asking tenants to pay rent on a monthly basis, there are still some tenants who are locked into contracts with advanced cheques deposited way into 2010.
And while the tenants paying possibly the cheapest rents in modern Doha will have to look elsewhere, almost all the traders have applied for shops in the upcoming Barwa Village on Wakrah Road.
A two-bedroom flat in Titanic cost QR1,800 while the shops were rented out at QR2,850 by landlord’s office. The money, the office claimed, went to charity anyway.
Barwa Village, a massive self-contained mixed-used neighbourhood with 900 shops is expected to be completed only in the first quarter of 2010 leaving the traders in Titanic in a lurch for at least six months.
“It is practically impossible to do business from a temporary shop. Who will give a shop on a six months contract? This thing could have been better co-ordinated” another trader said.
Almost all the shops in Titanic deal in hardware and also worried whether once in Barwa Village they would be given at least one row of shops where they could all be together since it makes better commercial sense to them, and to customers.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Thani’s office yesterday was not available for a comment.