Al-Buhairat City is a water-oriented resort-residential-recreational development fronting on the Red Sea, three quarters of an hour north of downtown Jeddah and fifteen minutes from Jeddah International airport. The site of this comprehensively planned community is just beyond the outer edge of Jeddah's existing urban and second home development, along the Obhur Creek, and totals 4 square kilometres, including a full kilometre of frontage on the Red Sea. The master developer is undertaking all the site excavation and reclamation works and infrastructure development, as well as all the residential components of the project, while other investors will participate In the development of the hotel, commercial and recreational components of the project. A team led by Arthur Erickson was engaged to replan Zones 1 and 4 - each with an area of approximately half a square kilometre

Zone 1, located on top of the dead coral reef along the Red Sea frontage, is to be developed as a high quality beach resort, providing all Al-Buhairat residents and visitors with direct ocean contact, including beaches, promenades, landscaped island parks, a major marina and yacht club. Zone 1 includes a five star luxury hotel facing the main entrance channel, a 4-star business/conference hotel on a man-made hill, 10 exclusive royal villas served from the luxury resort hotel, luxury condominiums and apartments, and a tourist-oriented retail promenade. It also includes the Red Sea Aquarium, which features an underwater reef viewing area and passenger submarine rides, as well as conventional indoor aquarium exhibits and shaded outdoor marine mammal tanks.

Zone 4, centred on the main north-south highway, includes a central island with a concentration of density commercial, entertainment and apartment development, and separate north and south shore areas of public, recreational and apartment development. The central island is envisaged as a compact, predominantly pedestrian precinct, which will act as both the town centres for AI-Buhairat City itself and the shopping, and entertainment center for the entire peninsula. The core of the central island is a multi-level 1800- car parking structure beneath the elevated north-south highway, and a regional shopping complex providing a strong pedestrian linkage between the east and west halves of the island. The east of the island is devoted to commercial recreation, while the western half is centred on a recreated Arab town. Mid-market apartments line the north and south edges of the central island, as well as the opposite shores on the mainland.