Building stronger communities to support the urban revitalization of Downtown Cairo

Downtown Cairo has been currently undergoing a massive revitalization, positioning itself as a premier touristic and cultural destination. Amidst this urban transformation, Reliance Developments, part of Reliance Holding, acquired the rights from the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to repurpose and operate the former Ministry of Interior building, now known as the Lazoghly Complex, for the next 25 years.Their vision was ambitious: transforming the historic,  governmental asset into a vibrant, multifaceted complex featuring an i-star hotel to fill a market gap, a cultural center, F&B outlets, a garden, and co-working spaces.

However, introducing a modern, tourist-centric complex into a deeply established residential neighborhood with a large number of schools posed some social risks. Reliance Developments recognized that the long-term commercial success of the project required more than just architectural renovation; it required the trust and confidence of the surrounding community and training them to be able to provide the optimal hospitality experience for international and local tourists alike.  CID Consulting stepped in to evaluate the situation and advise on starting community engagement in the project’s early stages to allow time for true social behavioural change.

The CID team approached the assignment by viewing the Lazoghly Complex not just as a physical asset, but as an integral part of a living neighborhood. The approach was to focus on engaging the community beforehand to shift the strategy from a top-down corporate strategy to grassroots co-creation, which proved quite successful.

The team applied its in-house social behavioral change methodology, framing community engagement through a business lens, focusing on risk mitigation and shared value creation rather than traditional corporate social responsibility. The goal was to create a phased three-year Community Engagement Plan that can inform Reliance Developments’ activities with its community.

The first step was a comprehensive stakeholder mapping and analysis exercise. Through targeted focus group discussions, interviews, and rigorous on-the-ground observations, we got to know more stakeholders within the neighbouring community. These stakeholders ranged from public and private schools to cultural centers, public and private parking lots, and local kiosks.

A pivotal step in our methodology was hosting a collaborative brainstorming workshop with key cultural centers, including El Warsha Theatre Troupe, Photopia, and Makan. The invaluable insights gathered, emphasizing the preservation of authentic Egyptian identity and accessible arts, directly shaped the recommendations included in the strategy. This resulted in a shared cultural calendar, planning heritage storytelling modules for hotel staff, and proposing referral programs for authentic local restaurants, which were all included as part of the strategy.

Translating these insights into action, the team designed the Community Engagement Plan. Year One prioritized immediate risk mitigation and trust-building. Some of the activities proposed focused more on the schools in the neighborhood to start building youths’ sense of ownership and work on making them feel like the neighbourhood truly belonged to them. This was done through workshops and open sessions with the students, including establishing joint teacher-student committees, implementing waste segregation initiatives, and launching awareness campaigns focused on positive tourist interaction, which were intentionally designed to build a strong community bond.  To guarantee sustainable execution, the CID team also provided an actionable first-year budget and recommended a hybrid governance model, equipping Reliance Developments with the exact tools needed to seamlessly transition from planning to implementation.

To ensure the sustainability and scalability of these efforts, CID developed a customized Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework, designed to track the Social Return on Investment (SROI) through measurable indicators, such as the percentage of local students demonstrating positive behavioral shifts toward visitors, the number of youth equipped with heritage storytelling skills, the participation rate of neighbouring shop owners in district beautification, the number of local restaurant employees trained in food safety and customer service, and the frequency of collaborative cultural tours and performances hosted with nearby institutions.

By connecting social initiatives directly to tangible business outcomes, CID successfully set a strong precedence for Reliance Developments’ approach to community engagement as an imperative, shifting the company’s mindset towards social impact and ingraining it in its approach to its projects.

The team’s on-the-ground engagement surfaced commercial opportunities Reliance Developments had not previously considered. A prime example emerged during CID’s interviews with neighbouring private schools, specifically the Deutsche Schule der Borromäerinnen Kairo (DSB), where the company had not initially viewed students as a target demographic. However, the discussions revealed a strong local demand among the youth for safe, modern cafes and hangout spots, instantly identifying a new, recurring customer base for the complex. Additionally, forming strategic agreements with existing private parking facilities solved a logistical hurdle for the hotel, while integrating authentic local eateries into the guest experience enhanced the complex's value proposition without cannibalizing its internal F&B revenues.

The success of this strategic roadmap has extended far beyond the immediate neighborhood. Reliance Developments expressed high satisfaction with the project, aiming at using it as a foundation and benchmark for more projects that focus on urban regeneration and community engagement.