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Jeddah Central tenders project management role

12 July 2023

Jeddah Central Development Company (JCDC) has invited selected firms to submit bids by the end of August for a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the SR75bn ($20.4bn) Jeddah Central project in Saudi Arabia.

Jeddah Central is being developed on a 5.7 square-kilometre site and will comprise 17,000 residential units and 2,700 hotel keys, an opera house, a museum, a sports stadium and an oceanarium. It will have six districts, named Central, Marina, Beach, Sports Park, Cultural & Creativity and Wellness.

Dubai-headquartered Dar al-Handasah secured the masterplan design contract linked to the project’s first phase last year.

For construction work, the local Modern Building Leaders (MBL) was awarded a contract in May 2022 that involves delivering infrastructure and marine works and demolishing about 400 buildings.

Water, electric and waste management infrastructure services will be redirected as part of the contract. Dredging works, marine drilling and backfilling will be carried out using the estimated 4 million cubic metres of drilled materials.

JCDC was established in 2019 with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud chairing its board of directors. It is wholly owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which also owns the project’s lands. The developer has said there “are no ownership disputes or confiscation issues” linked to the scheme.

The company secured land for the first phase of Jeddah Central, formerly known as New Jeddah Downtown, following an agreement with the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces Institute in March.

In July 2022, JCDC signed design and engineering contracts for the stadium at the Jeddah Central project. The design contract has been inked with GMP International and the engineering contract has been awarded to Khatib & Alami.

JCDC said in June 2022 that US-based SOM had been appointed as the architect for the oceanarium and coral farm building at the Jeddah Central project. 

The oceanarium and coral farm will feature underwater exhibits and aims to position Jeddah and Saudi Arabia as a leader in marine conservation.

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Colin Foreman

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