Construction of the Jeddah Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which is expected to be the tallest building in the world, will resume with original contractor Saudi Binladin Group Co. after a hiatus of years, the parent company of Jeddah Economic Co. Kingdom Holding Co., announced on October 2.
Kingdom Holding said it signed a new contract with Saudi Binladin worth $1.9 billion, including $292.8 million already paid for work previously done. Construction is expected to take about 42 months.
The tower in Jeddah is expected to be 3,281 feet tall, surpassing the 2,717 feet of Burj Khalifa in Dubai. However, construction was halted before it was completed as Saudi Binladin grappled with the fallout from the 2015 Mecca crane collapse that killed more than 100 people and the arrest of President company, Bakr Bin Laden, as part of a crackdown on corruption. Reuters reported that bin Laden was released in 2021.
Work originally began in 2012 and was scheduled to be completed in 2019. However, the core was only 840 feet tall when work stopped 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 work. Binladin Group was not mentioned as an invited bidder, but Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was looking to buy a stake in the company. The results of any deals have not been shared publicly, although PIF announced in its latest annual report, published in August, that it invested a combined $1.3 billion in four other contractors last year.
