Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) has signed an estimated SR8bn ($2.1bn) contract with the local Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) to resume construction work on what will be the world’s tallest tower – the 1,000-metre-plus Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia.

When completed, Jeddah Tower will be more than 172 metres taller than the 828-metre-tall Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building since 2009.

In a statement on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), Kingdom Holding, which is a shareholder in JEC, said: "The total value of this agreement amounts to SR7.2bn (out of which around SR1.1bn has been already paid for works previously completed on the tower), with an anticipated construction period of 42 months. Jeddah Economic Company will finance remaining construction of the tower through internal funding and banking facilities."

Jeddah Tower’s superstructure is about one-third complete with 63 floors out of a total 157. SBG was the main contractor on the project in the early and mid-2010s. Germany’s Bauer completed the tower's piling work.

Construction work on the project then stalled, and in 2023, JEC called the performance guarantees or bonds provided by SBG. A source close to the project told MEED at the time that the bonds' value totalled SR653m ($174m).

After JEC called the bonds, it launched a tender process, and bids were submitted earlier this year by a joint venture of the local El-Seif Engineering & Contracting and Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation; Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC); and Kuwait’s Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons, with support from international partners.

The joint venture of El-Seif and China State was later understood to be the frontrunner for the contract. Talks with the contracting joint venture ended over the summer before SBG secured the contract to complete the project.

The architect is US-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill, and the engineering consultant is Lebanon’s Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners).

Jeddah Tower is the centrepiece of the Jeddah Economic City development. The project’s first phase, which includes the main tower, covers an area of 1.5 million square metres.

Tallest towers in the world