Buildings
Construction of World's Tallest Building to Resume With New $1.9B Contract for Jeddah Tower
Work on the tower in Saudi Arabia was halted in 2018
Construction on Jeddah Tower was halted in early 2018.
Photo courtesy of Jeddah Economic Co.
Construction of the Jeddah Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia—which is planned to be the world’s tallest building—is set to resume with original contractor Saudi Binladin Group Co. after a years-long pause, owner Jeddah Economic Co.'s parent company, Kingdom Holding Co., announced Oct. 2.
Kingdom Holding said it signed a new contract with Saudi Binladin worth $1.9 billion, including $292.8 million already paid for previously completed work. Construction is expected to take about 42 months.
Jeddah Tower is planned to stand 3,281-ft tall, surpassing the 2,717-ft Burj Khalifa in Dubai. However, construction was halted before it was finished as Saudi Binladin faced fallout from the 2015 Mecca crane collapse that killed more than 100 people and the arrest of the company’s chair, Bakr Bin Laden, as part of a corruption crackdown. Reuters reported Bin Laden was released in 2021.
Work originally started in 2012 and was scheduled to complete in 2019. However, the core was just 840 ft tall by the time work halted in 2018.
The contract comes about a year after Middle East business magazine MEED reported that 14 contractors had been invited to bid for the job. Binladin Group was not mentioned as an invited bidder, but earlier this year Bloomberg reported Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was looking to buy a stake in the company. The results of any deal have not been shared publicly, though PIF announced in its latest annual report, released in August, that it invested a combined $1.3 billion in four other contractors last year.
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