Over the past five years, the urban landscape of many Jordanian cities has changed dramatically. With the influx of billions of dollars in direct foreign investments coming from oil-rich Arab Gulf states, several Jordanian cities have gone from quiet, conservative towns to booming metropolises replete with high rise towers, mega development projects, and ambitious urban developments. Adopting an interdisciplinary, and multi-layered methodology, this research project takes place at three levels: the macro, meso and micro levels. At the macro-level, the proposed research project analyzes official narratives and public perceptions of these mega-projects. Interviews with over 20 policy and planning officials, this paper measures their level of engagement with public groups and local citizens. Moreover, through content-analysis of local media and archived web postings, we determined the degree of transparency involved in the public consultation process. At the meso-level, local perception of inclusiveness in mega real estate development was investigated using on-line surveys where over 2000 respondents voiced their opinions and perceptions of Amman’s urban development. This also presents a new means of integrating public opinion data on national governance in Middle East urban studies. Finally, at the micro-level, over 15 local focus groups were conducted to shed light on perceptions of how these mega real estate developments intersect with local housing, economic and social needs. We find significant resistance to mega development projects at the public and official level and yet structural pressure by global agents and the political elite to continue urban real estate development in the name of ‘modernization’. Methodologically, this project is unique in its application of political science methods of research to a topic usually housed within the urban planning discipline. The use of multi-level nested design permits a novel approach that enables simultaneous investigation and comparison of official, public and local perceptions of democratic urban planning processes. Similarly, this research project provides, for the first time, an opportunity to test, assess and enhance the use of online survey questionnaires to gauge public opinion about inclusive urban planning. Finally, empirically, this project offers an original in-depth comparative analysis of three Jordanian urban development sites where massive Gulf investments are very rapidly reshaping the urban landscape throughout the Middle East.