Saudi Arabia evaluates 2km tower bids
9 June 2025
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Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has received offers from firms for a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) for a new central business district (CBD) on the outskirts of Riyadh, which includes the proposed 2-kilometre megatall tower project.
The PMC role covers both the tower and the surrounding district. The request for proposals is understood to have been issued by a PIF subsidiary known as the Tower District Real Estate Development Company.
The firms invited to bid were understood to include Aecom, Jacobs, Parsons and Turner, all US-based, and the UK’s Mace.
UK-based Foster & Partners is working as the architect on the tower after it won a design competition launched in late 2022.
Record breaker
The proposed tower will be more than double the height of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres tall. It is expected to be at least several hundred metres taller than the 1,000-metre-plus tall tower that is being built in Jeddah.
Contractors that have priced megatall towers in the region say a 2km-tall structure could cost about $5bn to construct, depending on the final design.
The 2km tower and the surrounding CBD, which are known as Project Rise, sit within a larger masterplanned development to the north of Riyadh called the North Pole.
MEED’s latest report on Saudi Arabia includes:
> GOVERNMENT: Riyadh takes the diplomatic initiative
> ECONOMY: Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy forges onward
> BANKING: Saudi banks work to keep pace with credit expansion
> UPSTREAM: Saudi oil and gas spending to surpass 2024 level
> DOWNSTREAM: Aramco’s recalibrated chemical goals reflect realism
> POWER: Saudi power sector enters busiest year
> WATER: Saudi water contracts set another annual record
> CONSTRUCTION: Reprioritisation underpins Saudi construction
> TRANSPORT: Riyadh pushes ahead with infrastructure development
> DATABANK: Saudi Arabia’s growth trend heads up
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