The local Bahrain Bay Development Company is preparing to issue tender documents for the Four Seasons Hotel at Bahrain Bay.

At least nine contractors are understood to have prequalified for the main construction contract, which involves building a 300-metre-tall hotel, which will be one of the tallest buildings in the kingdom when it is completed. The hotel will have a built-up area of 68,000 square metres and a car parking area of 20,000 sq m.

The contract was first due to be tendered in the summer of 2008 after Australia’s Multiplex was awarded the contract for the raft foundation in April of that year. The project stalled in late 2008 as regional property prices slumped in the wake of the global credit crisis (MEED 30:4:08).  

US-based Turner Construction International is the project manager. SOM, also of the US, is the architect. The UK’s Atkins is the local architect and engineer.

Contractors working in Bahrain say that work is proceeding on projects in the kingdom, despite the recent protests and civil unrest. “We have had a few days when we couldn’t work, but that was back in February and March,” says a contractor working in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. “Right now work is proceeding as normal.”