The local Al-Latifia Trading & Contracting Company has been awarded an estimated SR1.8bn ($480m) contract to build the new Hilton hotel in Riyadh.

The company was awarded the contract in December after prequalified groups has submitted tenders in September last year. The client for the project is Saudi Arabia’s General Organisation for Social Insurance (Gosi).

The Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residence will be located on Riyadh’s Eastern Ring Road, a major route linking the King Khalid International airport with the downtown area of Riyadh.

The development will consist of two towers, one 20-storey tower containing 480 hotel rooms and a 14-storey tower with 350 hotel apartments. In addition to guestrooms, the hotel will contain several restaurants and two outdoor lounges. The development will also house eight meeting rooms, two boardrooms, business centre, separate male and female ballrooms and a junior ballroom.

The hotel will also have leisure and recreational facilities, including a spa and health club, and swimming pool. It is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The hotel will be situated between the 466,000-square-metre Granada shopping centre and the Granada Business Park. The development will also be close to the King Abdullah Financial District.

The Hilton Worldwide hotel group currently has six hotels operating and has 13 hotels in the development pipeline in the kingdom (MEED 24:6:11).

In May 2011, the Hilton hotel group signed a deal with the local Dar al-Bayan Real Estate Development Company to build a Hilton resort in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The 430-room Hilton al-Jubail is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2014.

Hilton opened nine new hotels across the Middle East and Africa in 2011, taking the total number of hotels the group operates in the region to 54.