A large chunk of the old Salmiya souk is going to get demolished soon, its now official since signs are now located all over the building saying this. For the people who said that the building is going to be refurbished and expanded, thats not true, the whole building is going down. I wonder how much traffic will decrease after the building which houses a large chunk of the shops in the souk gets brought down.
21 replies on “Old Salmiya IS getting demolished”
Didn’t one guy buy a large part of the old salmiya street?
I heard he is the same guy that is now buying Fanar for 50 Million KD.
It’s like monopoly, he’s trying to get the full strip. Anyone know what they plan to build there?
Pink Moon,
The guy you are referring to is Saud Al-Mutairi, who bought Al-Fanar from it’s owners (Al-Tamdeen if i’m not mistaken) for 50mil and controversially sold it about a week later for more than 60mil.
Not sure how he is involved with the old salmiya souk but a lot of fishiness seems to follow the guy, so if he is in fact behind it, this won’t be the last you hear of the story.
6allaa 😛
I smell money laundry.
I don’t understand the obsession with malls.
im sure in 5 years malls won’t be the thing anymore.
The souq was bought by a millionaire Saud Sahod Al-Mutairi. I’ve read about the deal late last year, its going to be one large mall, built with an original concept unlike any ordinary mall in the country.
I use to hangout there…anyway, I sent this to Marzouq and I’m sending it to you as well and I want you to solve it.
check it out
https://www.triplem.host.sk/?p=95
Yeap, Saud Sahod Al-Mutairi bought the Salmiya building. I know, ’cause I was living there when he did & there was alot of mess – or should I say he or he’s office played unfair with all living there. I could go on & on for hours in this matter. They took over the Salmiya bldg (KFC bldg) on 1st Aug. ’07 – the next day they cut off the A/C for all flats, locked the roof doors – so none can go and get things fixed. This is only the skim of the surface…
Also I live in sahod building l take flats rent 350 kd each and electric and water also 350 kd yearly in Midan Hawally people in office take 300 kd commission and 350 kd rents and 350 kd parking even me I don’t have car. All they take from me 2, 830 kd , they take all my money that money from my endimnity. In Danah fish. I’m planing to go Philippine and I don’t have. I’m now 61 years old I canot afford to work now. Sahod building take all my money. That people in office take. , Maybe owner of building doesnot know what they are doing in office. I’m very sad.
I think its the new M.H. Alshaya Showroom.
Link: https://www.sooreng.com/commercial-shaya-frame.html
Mshari and Q8O – Fishiness and money laundry ? How noble of you to spread rumors . Don’t talk about stuff you know nothing about .
Wow another mall without parking. They need to build a helipad on top, so they can hover people in, or in our case a guy or two.
Smoothtony – thats sad ! These business men thing they are entitled to having anything they want ;/
I second Equalizer !
I like old salmiya….reminds me of the old days…..new doesnt necessarily mean good !
50 Million KD for Al-Fanar? I think the land only is worth way more! There is a palace that belongs to some Sheikh right next to the Scientific Center, and he’s selling it for 200 Million KD. That’s almost like one BILLION dollars.
Anyway, I think it’s about time they renovated those stores. I mean the land there is worth sooooo much, and most of the shops are “100 fils for anything” stores. I mean, give me a break. It’s Salmiya, not Jeleeb Al-Shoyoukh
Old Salmiya did have a spirit for all (young & old) to walk along the shops… sometimes browse and/or buy… friendly shopkeepers, almost a homely environment… but with major commercial change, we’d probably have stuck up shopkeepers, who will not give a damn if you buy or not…
I just hope they keep the out door feel to it, but one thing is for sure no small shop owner is going to be able to afford the rent that they are going to be stuck with.
This is a sad, sad day indeed. Old Salmiya has memories for so many of us who grew up in Kuwait. The building that will be destroyed houses the first bookshop in Kuwait, The Family Bookshop. We are so easily willing to just demolish our culture and history. This lovely pedestrian area should be renovated and preserved. Those apartment buildings and shops could be turned into a truly beautiful and unique space. It shocks me that we are so willing to just bulldoze the past and replace it with hideous, Las Vegas-style malls and buildings. We razed the amazing city that once lined our shores. We have erased our architectural heritage (all that’s left are buildings like the Dickson house, the Behbehani complex, Bait Sidra, and a few others). And now we’re doing it again with the old-style buildings from the 50s and 60s. There is plenty of room to build new things, so why do we have to completely erase the signs of our urban history? What astonishes me more than anything else is that nobody seems to care! If this were anywhere else, there would be people picketing in the streets, historical preservation societies would be petitioning to save such landmarks. So now, instead of a potentially wonderful area layered with our history, we’ll have another boring indoor mall with a million more Al-Shayaa shops selling junk we don’t need. And the past that so many of us remember will vanish forever. Pathetic.
Man, these buyers have no sense of belongingness. All they want is to build one mall on top of another, demoslish and construct.
I think in near future we will witness what no other country has witnessed meaning nowadays big CRANES help in erecting buildings and mall, well sorry to say they are not BIG ENOUGH for our Business community so what will happen is probably US or China will come up with a Crane or something which will be so big that it can pick up ready made buildings and just drop them at target places in Kuwait. No to mention that we need a manufacturing facility where the buldings and malls will be the FINAL PRODUCTS.
Man the Govt. has to open up and start using the empty spaces which is 80-90% of Kuwait.
Well, probably they have left the land for oil excavations. For How long?
Equalizer , i agree with this guy
Boy, am I going to miss the Old Salmiya or what. There’s a portion of me and a very young portion at that which grew up on Old Salmiya. I get all senti just thinking about the New Supermarket, Wazzan tea house and La Patisserie off Salem Mubarak Street. Those were the good old days when Salmiya was all elegant and charming with a touch of class its own. Not to mention, the eye candy then used to be alot better than it is now.
This one’s also a shout out to the kindly Lebanese gentleman working the till at the New Supermarket in Salmiya and the dry cleaner beside Swan Lake recordings who would play backgammon with his friends and sip Turkish coffee while attending you.
red riding
The first bookshop in Kuwait is “Alruwayeh” bookshop, and its founder is Mohammed Ahmed Alruwayeh. The bookshop was later renamed “The National Bookshop” and you can still find it in the Old Souq.
Yes, Technoblast is right.
Alruwayeh bookshop is the first bookshop in Kuwait and this fact is documented in many books that talk about the history of Kuwait. As Technoblast said, its founder is Mohammad Ahmad Alruwayeh, Allah yer7uma, and the famous Kuwaiti poet Fahad Al-Askar used to go to this bookshop to buy books because it was the only bookshop in Kuwait back then.