Shop owners in Alexandria square sue governorate officials after demolitions under state development plan

Owners of a shop in Alexandria’s Masaged Square are suing the governor and the district head after several shops were demolished under a governorate redevelopment plan for the area, their lawyer told Mada Masr.

They are among over 100 shop owners who have been embroiled for over a year in a conflict with the Alexandria Governorate over the shops they trade from in Masaged Square.

The governorate has moved to redevelop the site and evict — at least temporarily — the shop owners from their properties.

But as the governorate has begun to enact the plans, the shop owners have begun to fear that the state’s redevelopment will pave the way for a gradual increase in the cost of their shops’ leases, ultimately making it too expensive for them to return to the location — a popular and religiously significant site known as Abul Abbas square lying adjacent to the burial place and mosque named for the Sufi mystic Abul Abbas al-Mursi.

In the lawsuit, one of the shop owners is demanding that they be given contracts for a new shop to replace their demolished property, lawyer Mohamed Ramadan, representing the shop’s owners in the case, told Mada Masr.

The shop is one of 12 commercial spaces in the square that were demolished earlier this year in a move the owners claim was unlawful, according to Ramadan, who also represents other shop owners affected by the redevelopment plan announced in 2023.

Many of the owners have deeds for the properties that date back decades.

According to Ramadan, the shop owners were granted usufruct contracts for both their units and the land they occupied by Maamoura for Construction and Tourism Development, which managed the square for years under a contractual agreement with the Alexandria Governorate dating back to the 1980s. In exchange for the usufruct contracts, the shop owners were paying a fixed annual fee to the governorate.

But in March 2023, the Alexandria governorate announced a redevelopment plan for Masaged Square, which currently accommodates over 100 shops, valued at approximately LE271 million.

Later that year, then-Governor Mohamed al-Sherif met with representatives of the shop owners to negotiate a temporary evacuation, assuring them they could return to their sites once the project was completed.

The representatives agreed to the temporary evacuation plan, which Ramadan described as “relatively satisfactory.” The plan included a grace period to determine evacuation procedures and stipulated that shop owners would be allocated temporary units in the newly developed Misr Railway Station Square for six months at a monthly rent not exceeding LE1,000.

Additionally, a valuation committee was to be formed to determine the rate of the usufruct fees for new shops in Masaged Square following the redevelopment, according to a meeting report reviewed by Mada Masr.

In July 2024, however, Ahmed Khaled assumed office as Alexandria’s governor, and, shortly afterward, the governorate issued official notices to the shop owners, informing them that it had terminated its contract with Maamoura Company.

The notices also instructed shop owners to settle any outstanding usufruct fees and submit requests to be allowed to continue renting their shops from the governorate, warning that failure to comply would result in immediate eviction, Ramadan said.

Two shop owners, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, said that when they attempted to continue renting from the governorate, they found that their usufruct ownership contracts had been altered, which Ramadan confirmed.

They were asked to make retroactive payments ranging from LE900,000 to LE2 million, they said. One shop owner described the requirement as “nothing but an attempt to force us out by making it impossible for us to pay.”

Around the new year, shop owner representatives met with Deputy Governor Amira Salah, who denied that they had any rights to the shops and stated that the governorate was merely attempting to negotiate a solution “out of social consideration.” The meeting ended in a heated dispute, a shop owner who was present at the discussions told Mada Masr.

Then, in early 2025, the governorate moved unilaterally and without prior notice to demolish the 12 shops, which had been damaged in a fire years earlier, one of the owners told Mada Masr. The owners filed complaints alleging the governorate's action was unlawful.

Shop owners met with the head of the Gomrok district, where the square is located, in January. He gave the more than 160 shop owners in the square a deadline to sign an agreement approving the redevelopment project, according to two shop owners who attended the meeting and spoke to Mada Masr.

At the meeting, Gomrok district chief Mohamed Salah told the shop owners’ representatives they must sign declarations acknowledging receipt of eviction notices in preparation for the redevelopment. By signing, they would be agreeing to the project.

In return, Salah promised they would be allowed to set up a temporary “tent” to sell their products until their shops were rebuilt and a new contract arrangement was reached — on condition that they first pay the accumulated usufruct revaluation fees.

However, one of the shop owners who attended the meeting said they were given no details about the new contracts or any official assurances regarding their right to reclaim their shops. The same source added that Salah refused to provide any formal commitment regarding when the new shops would be handed over, leading the shop owners to refuse to sign the plans.

The two sources who attended the meeting also reported that Salah threatened further demolitions.