Kingdom Holding Company, the investment company chaired by Saudi Prince Alwaleed, has awarded a piling contract worth SR153 million ($40.7 million) for its mammoth Jeddah project to leading construction group Saudi Bauer.

Announcing this at a board meeting of  Jeddah Mega Project, Alwaleed said the piling work will be done under the supervision of Saudi Bin Laden Group (SBG), the main contractor.

Speaking in the presence of Jeddah Project partners Saleh Bin Laden, Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly, Alwaleed said, "The Jeddah tower is on a solid strategic path."

The meeting was also attended by Talal Al Maiman, the executive director, Development and Domestic Investments, chairman and CEO of Kingdom Real Estate Development Company (KRED), a board member of KHC and Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), Shadi Sanbar, KHC’s CFO, Waleed Batterjee, the JEC chief executive officer and Husam Hamdy, the GM of  Saudi Bauer and architect Nabil Batrawi, project director at SBG.  

During the meeting, Prince Alwaleed and the partners discussed the latest developments and progress being made with the mega Jeddah project. Following the meeting, Sharbatly hosted a dinner in the honour of the board.

In his comments, Al Maiman said, “The vision of constructing the tallest tower in the world in Jeddah belongs to Prince Alwaleed, who was closely involved in the selection of the scheme currently under design.”

“The decision of the partners to build the world’s tallest building further demonstrates their belief in investing in this nation.”

The previous meeting was held in Riyadh, where Alwaleed hosted a luncheon in the honour of the partners. The partners had discussed the commencement of the construction of the project, strategic support and marketing strategy.

In April, Alwaleed, who initiated and has been the driving force behind the decision to build the world’s tallest tower in Jeddah, had announced an investment of SR1.5 billion from the SBG for a 16.63 per cent stake in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), owner of the Jeddah mega project that includes the world’s tallest tower (Kingdom Tower) standing at over 1,000 meters.

To be built at a cost of SR4.6 billion, Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and the first construction phase of Kingdom City Jeddah.

The overall estimated cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be SR75 billion ($20 billion), said Waleed Batterjee.

“We are confident that upon completion, Kingdom Tower will become one of the world’s great tourist destinations as well as one of the most attractive places to live and work in the region,” said Sharbatly and Bakhsh in a joint statement.

Yahya Bin Laden said the SBG will provide all necessary technical and logistic support to Saudi Bauer to successfully complete the piling phase.

An interdisciplinary team led by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), based in Chicago, created the design of the Kingdom Tower.

The team also included building services engineering consultants, Environmental Systems Design and structural engineering consultants, Thornton Tomasetti, engineer of three of the world’s top 10 tallest buildings.

JEC selected the AS+GG scheme after a lengthy competition process in which SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster + Partners also participated.

With a total construction area of over 500,000 sq m, the soaring Kingdom Tower will be a mixed-use building featuring a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, first class office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory that will be higher than the world’s current highest observation deck.-TradeArabia News Service