Saudi Prince Alwaleed To Build World's Tallest Tower With Binladen Group

8/02/2011
Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff

Just as the financial markets were beginning to crash in October 2008, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he would build the world’s tallest tower, but then failed to move forward on the project. Today at a press conference in Riyadh, Alwaleed restarted activity on the skyscraper. He signed a $1.2 billion contract to begin building what will be called Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — a building that will be taller than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters). The contractor for the project is Saudi Binladen Group, which is contributing $400 million toward completion of the tower.

“This project will provide sustainable profits to Kingdom Holding shareholders,” Alwaleed said in a statement. Kingdom Holding, Alwaleed’s Saudi-listed investment vehicle, has several partners in the project, including the Bin Laden Group and several Saudi businessmen.

Kingdom Tower is to become the centerpiece of a 17.4 million square foot (5.3 mln sq meters) development overlooking the Red Sea north of Jeddah called Kingdom City. Alwaleed created an entity called Jeddah Economic Company in 2009 to develop Kingdom City.

Kingdom Tower will host a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons-serviced apartments, office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory that Alwaleed says will be higher than the world’s current highest observation deck.

Alwaleed was involved in building another Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, where his Kingdom Holding Co. offices are headquartered. Kingdom Tower Riyadh is a striking building that also contains a Four Seasons Hotel, office space and an observatory.

Alwaleed has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $19.6 billion. He is a co-owner with Bill Gates of the Four Seasons Hotel management company. Alwaleed, a diversified global investor, owns stakes through Kingdom Holding in Citigroup, News Corp., Apple and the Fairmont hotel management company, among other investments.

Source: Forbes.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2011/08/02/saudi-prince-alwaleed-to-build-worlds-tallest-tower-with-bin-laden-group/.