HOLY NAJAF, Iraq: Investors are flooding into the holy city of Najaf - a relative oasis of peace in Iraq - hoping to profit from the millions of religious pilgrims who come to visit the holy shrine of Imam Ali Ibn Talib (peace be upon him).

While the city lacks facilities to reap the profits from these visitors, that is about to change.

Over the last six months, private investors have been competing for contracts to build the holy city into a grandiose destination, with five-star hotels, transportation and recreation. The enthusiasm hints at what might take place elsewhere in the country, were peace and stability to prevail.

From an airport, to a complex of hotels, to a train between the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, Najaf's future is bright.

A $1 billion contract was signed with a Kuwaiti company, Fedek, to create a railroad system between Karbala and Najaf. One investor, Global Enterprise, plans to invest $125 million in a tourism complex in Bahr -on Najaf, a desert area of beautiful stone cliffs and palm-tree groves. The center will be a complex of resort hotels that have their own water supplies and generate their own electricity, Munthar Ajinah, who is in charge of investments under the governor of Najaf, said. It will outdo the typical small, rundown local hotels that have only one item on their restaurants' menus.

A stretch of desert north of the city, fenced in and guarded by police officers, will be an airport for pilgrims to fly directly to Najaf. An Iraqi British company, Fahad al Basra, signed a $72.8 million contract to turn this desert area into an airport. A stretch of black pavement cuts through the desert, a runway left from Saddam's military, and will serve as a landing strip.

"This is the only thing we inherited from the past regime," said Haider al-Ramahi, an assistant to the governor.

Lebanese and Iranian companies are interested in opening airlines that will transport people to the airport, Ramahi said.

Companies plan to share an agreed percentage of the profits of each project with the province, Ajinah said. Soon, Najaf will be the center of Iraq.

Small hotels are popping up on the horizon of this city, a soccer stadium was built with coalition money, and nearby in the town of Kufa, about $250,000 in coalition money paid for the renovation of a restaurant and walkway, complete with spouting fountains and colored lights, along a branch of the Euphrates River.

Recently, Boeing approached the governor about using an old military airport from Saddam’s regime, a drive of several hours away near the Saudi border, to build a workshop that would serve as a Middle East destination to repair planes, Ramahi said.

Basic reconstruction is visible as men cement bricks into the sidewalks. The work cannot keep up with demand, said Haider al-Mayali, a local official in charge of reconstruction and development.

In part, reconstruction owes its success to the relative security of the city, Mayali said. Coalition forces now hang in the background since the handover of the city four months ago. They are seen only at openings of new facilities built with coalition money, at their base, or in the small office they have in the governorate building.

Decisions about where money will be spent are left up to local officials, who give coalition forces a prioritized list.

But this is only a start, Mayali said. "It was deliberate politics of the past regime to destroy this city," he said.

Now Najaf is picking itself up and striving to become the future of Iraq.

Ajinah has bold plans for Najaf, including a mall to replace an old marketplace downtown, a spa resort, and an amusement park.

"I'm 68. When I'm 78, I want everyone to call Najaf the pearl of the Middle East," Ajinah said.