audi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invited firms to bid for the project management consultancy (PMC) on 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 (RFP) is understood to have been issued by a PIF subsidiary known as the Tower District Real Estate Development Company. The initial close date was 4 March, which has now been extended to 20 March.

The prospective bidders include Aecom, Bechtel, Jacobs, Parsons and Turner, all US-based, and the UK’s Mace.

UK-based Foster & Partners is working as the architect on the megatall tower after it won a design competition launched in late 2022.

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.

MEED recently reported that US-based Turner has been appointed as the project manager for Jeddah Tower. Turner was the project manager for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which has been the world’s tallest building since 2010.

The appointment comes amid other signs of progress on Jeddah Tower. The concrete pouring works for the tower began on 20 January, marking the official recommencement of construction works.

The project’s contractor, the local Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), has received a payment of SR712m ($190m) for work on the tower. It was awarded an estimated SR8bn ($2.1bn), 42-month contract to resume construction work in October 2024. Completion is expected in 2028.

Price tag

Contractors that have priced megatall towers in the region say that a 2km-tall structure could cost about $5bn to construct depending on the final design.

The 2km tower and the surrounding CBD are part of a larger masterplanned development to the north of Riyadh. Known as the North Pole, an RFP to re-masterplan that development is expected to be issued soon.