Messilah Beach will get a cinema, theatres, an ice rink, water activities, museums and more

Messilah Beach is about to get a cinema and an ice-skating rink.

Kuwait’s Municipal Council approved the plan on Monday, during its 28th regular session of the fourth legislative term, chaired by Abdullah Al Mahri. The same meeting also cleared two new hotels at Kuwait International Airport’s Terminal 2, and signed off on several other land and infrastructure decisions across the country.

If you’ve been following the airport’s expansion, or you live near the Gulf Road stretch by Messilah, this session touches both. It also follows other entertainment news this year, including Al Shaheed Park’s new phase with its own ice rink and the recent return of Luna Park to Al-Muruj.

What’s changing at Messilah Beach

The Messilah Beach 2 project covers roughly 70,334.5 square metres along the coast. Under the revised plan, 5% of the site, about 3,516.7 square metres, goes to commercial space: shops, restaurants and cafés.

A bigger share, 15% or around 10,550.1 square metres, is set aside for recreational, educational, training and indoor sports facilities. That’s where the cinema, theatres, ice-skating rinks, water activities, indoor and outdoor children’s play areas, museums, exhibitions and sports courts are expected to go.

The plan also leaves room for a health club, festival grounds, event spaces and other multipurpose entertainment facilities. This would make Messilah one of the bigger entertainment hubs on the Gulf Road, alongside existing family spots like Al Shaheed Park.

Nothing is built yet. The council’s approval only clears the land-use plan. Before any construction permit is issued, detailed development plans still need sign-off from the relevant authorities. The developer must also coordinate with the Ministry of Finance over the existing contract, and get clearance from the Interior Ministry’s General Traffic Department, likely over traffic flow and parking along that busy coastal road. Service areas won’t count towards the project’s built-up space calculations.

Two hotels instead of one at Terminal 2

At Kuwait International Airport, the council approved a request from the Ministry of Public Works to split what was originally planned as a single transit passenger hotel at Terminal 2 into two separate hotels, one in the eastern wing and one in the western wing.

Both hotels will share the total area already approved for the single hotel, 7,500 square metres, so there’s no increase in overall space. The amendment also keeps the terminal’s built-up and commercial space unchanged, and every other condition from the original approval stays in place.

This matters for anyone with a long layover in Kuwait. Transit hotels let passengers rest between connecting flights without leaving the airport. Kuwait’s new terminal has already drawn attention this year for its design, not far behind other projects we’ve covered, like the Gulf airports named among the world’s most beautiful terminals.

Other land and infrastructure decisions

The council also formalised the boundaries of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s existing oil complex in Shuwaikh, which covers 64,591.94 square metres. This needs coordination with the Ministry of Finance’s State Property Contracts Department, and government departments can still adjust the site’s dimensions within approved limits if conflicts come up with infrastructure or urban planning needs.

In Siddiq, Block One, 23 separate residential plots were merged into a single 10,067 square-metre site, after the legal steps, including public notice and a window for objections, were completed. A separate request to build a diwaniya on a 1,000 square-metre plot in Faiha, Block Nine, was also approved.

On utilities, the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy got approval to allocate a freshwater pipeline corridor about 480 metres long and 5 metres wide in Rahiya and Umm Tuwaing. It will run from the Sixth Ring Road intersection near the Ammunition Camp to supply another camp still going through site allocation.

The Ministry of Justice secured a change of use for a 6,625.37 square-metre plot in the Shuwaikh Administrative Area. It was originally meant for a multistorey parking facility for the Public Prosecution building, but will now host an administrative building plus parking, following Cabinet Resolution No. 224 of 24 February 2026.

Two sites for subsidised goods distribution centres, in Riqqa and Jaber Al Ali, were also approved, each 1,000 square metres with 189 square metres for parking. These will sell and distribute subsidised goods and offer short-term storage. A proposal from the Jahra Governor about temporary use of land behind the Jahra telephone exchange was sent to Kuwait Municipality’s executive body for further study. You can find more council and planning decisions like these in our latest local news.

Awnings near transformers: a safety debate

Council member Fahad Al Abdaljader and several colleagues raised a separate issue during the session: the removal of awnings near secondary electrical transformers and distribution boards in residential areas.

Al Abdaljader said the municipality’s spacing rules come from regulations on landscaping open spaces, but talks with the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy showed gaps between those standards and what’s actually being enforced on the ground. He argued the awnings serve a real purpose for homeowners, and that any restriction should balance safety with residents’ needs. The matter was referred to the Legal and Financial Committee, working with the ministry, to try to set one consistent rule.

What this means if you live in Kuwait

None of this changes your day-to-day life immediately. These are land-use and planning approvals, the kind of paperwork that has to happen before a single shovel goes into the ground.

But if you’re a family that spends weekends at the beach, Messilah’s expansion is worth watching over the next year or two. And if you travel often through the airport, the hotel split shouldn’t change your experience much, since the total space stays the same, just split between two buildings instead of one.

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