Morocco Faces $400 Million Arbitration Claim from Spanish Developer over Failed Projects

The tribunal will begin to examine the case and decide whether Morocco should compensate Marina d’Or, which is claiming 407 million euros for the two real estate projects lost in Rabat and Tangier. After years of unsuccessful negotiations with Morocco, the real estate company filed an arbitration request in June 2022 with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank.

The two parties had appointed their respective arbitrators, but had failed to reach an agreement to appoint the third arbitrator, blocking the process since November. Morocco had appointed the Italian Attila Tanzi as arbitrator, while Marina d’Or had chosen the Swiss-Peruvian Fernando Piérola Castro. But it was not until last July that the two parties finally appointed the Canadian-Ecuadorian Mélanie Riofrio Piché, secretary of the Madrid International Arbitration Center (CIAM), as the third arbitrator and president of the tribunal, reports Cinco Días.

Marina d’Or blames Morocco for its "inaction" in the realization of the "Ville nouvelle de Tamesna" project on the outskirts of Rabat, which planned the construction of 7,000 housing units, a shopping center, a 3-star hotel..., reducing it ultimately to only a few isolated buildings without a waste collection service. In the "La Perle de Tanger" project in the city of the same name, which planned the construction of more than 600 housing units, a shopping center, two 5 and 4-star hotels, it denounces "administrative blockage resulting from internal conflicts between Moroccan authorities".