Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Tower, the over one kilometre tall skyscraper which will replace Dubai's 828 metres tall Burj Khalifa as the highest tower in the world, will be completed in 2018, said a top official.

The work on the 1,008 metre tall Kingdom Tower, which will be built north of Jeddah at an estimated cost of SR6 billion ($1.6 billion), will be ready in December 2018, revealed Mounib Hammoud, the CEO of Jeddah Economic Company.

Saudi Binladin Group, the contractors working on the project expect to complete the raft foundation of the tower, which is the largest of its kind in the world, in August this year, stated Hammoud while speaking at Meed's Arabian World Construction Summit (AWCS) in Dubai.

The tower will be the nucleus of a new commercial centre to the north of Jeddah. The first phase will cover 1.4 million sq m and will include the tower, a mall, a large mosque for 12,000 worshippers together with other residential and commercial buildings.

“It is the largest concrete raft in world. In places, the thickness is five metres,” remarked Hammoud. “Everything in the tower is the biggest or tallest,” he added.

In February 2013, a joint venture of the UK-based EC Harris/Mace was awarded the project management contract to oversee the development of the tower.

The client developing the tower and the surrounding Kingdom City is Jeddah Economic Company, which said it is looking to raise about $1 billion to help fund the estimated SR13 billion first phase of the Jeddah Kingdom City, together with the SR8.7 billion that the shareholders of Jeddah Economic Company have provided to capitalise the company.

The first phase of Jeddah Kingdom City will be 1.4 million square metres and will include the tower, a mall, a large mosque for 12,000 worshippers, 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.

According to Hammoud, the land sales and off-plan property sales are set to accelerate as soon as the construction work on the SR6 billion Kingdom Tower’s superstructure begins.

“We are not in a hurry to sell land as the value is increasing as the tower construction moves ahead,” remarked Hammoud while addressing the gathering at the summit.

The three-day AWCS 2014 being held at the Sofitel Hotel on Palm Jumeirah is a key annual industry event for master developers, stakeholders, project owners, contractors and the construction industry who plan, create and deliver truly world class projects and infrastructure.-TradeArabia News Service