The Petit Serail was planned as a civic center following the Tanzimat reform and according to the Beirut municipality project of 1878. The northern side of Sahet el-Bourj was chosen as a strategic site since it occupied the heart of the new extra-mural city. The new structure was commissioned by Beirut mayor Ibrahim Fakhri Bey, construction began in 1881 at the site of a former saray that was ordered demolished by the Wali Hamdi Pasha.[6][7] The serail was built by Bechara Effendi Avedissian, chief engineer of the Vilayet of Syria and Youssef Effendi Khayat, engineer of the city of Beirut,[3][7] but the project ran into financial difficulties as attested by a number of correspondence letters between the Wali of Syria Ahmad Hamdi Pasha and the Porte.