Qatar Enters U.S. Market with Deal to Help Fund $700 Million D.C.

NNN Lease Market News

Qatar has been active in the prime London property market, where a consortium of Qatari-backed entities is funding the development of the Shard, the largest skyscraper to be built in the UK, as well as developments at the former Chelsea Barracks and Park House in the West End.

Al Saad told the Financial Times his group would continue to look for investments in the U.S. real estate market.

"We were very interested in the DC market," he said. "The risk profile in the city is more controlled. The economics work well. It was the right place to start" for the Qatar group.

Al Saad also noted the US real estate market had "attractive fundamentals".

Qatar, one of the world's smallest and richest countries, has rushed to the rescue of a planned, two-phased $700 million mixed-use project that has been languishing for the past 10 years in the heart of Washington, DC.

Washington, D.C. mayor Vincent C. Gray said City Center had been almost a decade in the making. He called the project "the "last missing piece of our downtown," the Financial Times reported.

According to Wikipedia, Qatar has the world's largest per capita production and proven reserves of both oil and natural gas.

In 2010, Qatar had the world's highest GDP per capita, while the economy grew by 19.40%, the fastest in the world. Qatar has the highest human development in the Arab world after the United Arab Emirates.

Qatar's 1.7 million population lives in a total land area of only 4,416 square miles.

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