RABAT • A private investment company in the United Arab Emirates plans an unprecedented one-billion-dollar (748-million-euro) development in Morocco’s historic southern city of Marrakesh, a local official said yesterday.

A Moroccan subsidiary of the UAE-based Reem Investments is to build a complex comprising housing, three hotels, a golf course and other attractions 10km from the centre of the city. The official said the Atlas Garden project was the biggest yet in the region, where the old fortified city on the edge of the Atlas Mountains is proving increasingly popular to tourists.

The project will eventually create 6,500 jobs on completion in five years’ time. It will include three hotels with a total capacity of more than 2,500 beds, gardens and other open spaces, cultural and entertainment facilities and the 18-hole golf course. Reem Investments is part of an alliance of UAE property developers called Al-Maabar. Two other partners, Sorouh and Al Qudra Holding, are also active in Morocco.