An EC Harris and Mace joint venture has won the $1.2bn (£780m) contract to project manage construction of the 1km-tall Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The dart-shaped mixed-use scheme is being developed by Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) and will soar higher than the world’s current tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828m), and will be three and a half times the height of The Shard in London (308m).
The EC Harris/Mace team fought off bids from 15 other firms to win the contract to provide project, commercial and design management services. They will work alongside US-based architect Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, main contractor Saudi Binladin Group, US-based engineer Thornton Tomasetti, and piling contractor Saudi Bauer.
Developer JEC also confirmed it is close to appointing a quantity surveyor consultancy, which will also be a UK firm.
Work on the 500,000 m2 tower is expected to begin on 1 April and will take just over five years to complete, ready for a 2018 opening. The building will house a five-star luxury Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, office space, luxury apartments and the world’s highest observation deck.
Kingdom Tower will form the centrepiece of JEC’s US$20bn (£13bn) Kingdom City development located to the north of Jeddah, overlooking the Red Sea, which will comprise over 5.3 million m2 of urban development including residential, commercial, hotel, office, retail, and educational buildings set amongst large inland water features.
Keith Brooks, head of property and social infrastructure at EC Harris, said: “The Kingdom Tower is a landmark building that will clearly demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to the world. We have a world-class team in place and I am confident that our integrated approach to project, design and construction management will help deliver a safe and successful project.”
Mark Reynolds, chief executive of Mace, said: “Kingdom Tower is a project of international importance and immense ambition… As the client’s project manager, I am confident we will deliver a development exemplary in innovation and approach.”
JEC is made up of four partners, the Kingdom Holding Company with a stake of 33.35%, SBG (16.63%), Abraar International Holding Company (33.35%), and prominent Jeddah businessman Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly (16.67%).
