Kingdom Tower Completed By 2018!

The Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, which will be the world’s tallest tower at 1,008 meters, will be completed in December 2018, said Mounib Hammoud, CEO of Jeddah Economic Company, speaking at MEED’s Arabian World Construction Summit (AWCS) in Dubai.

The contractors working on the SR6bn ($1.6bn) project expect to complete the raft foundation of the tower, which is the largest of its kind in the world, in August this year. “It is the largest concrete raft in the world. In places, the thickness is five meters,” says Hammoud. “Everything in the tower is the biggest or tallest.”

The first phase of Jeddah Kingdom City will be 1.4 million square meters and will include the tower, a mall, a large mosque for 12,000 worshipers, and residential and commercial buildings. France’s BNP Paribas is the financial adviser for the deal and the local Alinma Bank is also assisting with the loan that will bridge the funding gap while the developer waits for revenues from land sales at Jeddah Kingdom City.

The contractor chosen for Kingdom Tower is the local Saudi Binladin Group. In February 2013, a joint venture of the UK-based EC Harris/Mace was awarded for the project management contract to oversee the development of the tower.

The client developing Kingdom Tower and the surrounding Kingdom City is Jeddah Economic Company, which said it is looking to raise about $1bn to help fund the estimated SR13bn ($3.5bn) first phase of Jeddah Kingdom City, together with the SR8.7bn that the shareholders of Jeddah Economic Company have provided to capitalize the company.

Land sales and off-plan property sales are expected to accelerate as construction work on the SR6bn Kingdom Tower’s superstructure starts. “We are not in a hurry to sell land as the value is increasing as the tower construction moves ahead,” said Hammoud.

++ Kingdom Tower is currently one of my favorite Mega Projects and is destined to become a World Icon. This tower will dwarf even the mighty Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The Mega Projects being developed in Saudi Arabia, including Kingdom Tower, King Abdullah Economic City, King Abdullah Financial District and many others, are truly spectacular!