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Jeddah Central Development Company (JCDC) has received bids from contractors for five construction packages on its Jeddah Central project in Saudi Arabia. 

The packages cover four high-profile building projects, including the development’s sports stadium. The design contract was awarded to GMP International last year. The engineering contract was awarded to Khatib & Alami. 

The other packages contractors have submitted bids for are the opera house, museum, oceanarium and coral farm, and infrastructure works.

JCDC said in June 2022 that US-based SOM had been appointed as the architect for the oceanarium and coral farm building at the Jeddah Central project. 

The oceanarium and coral farm will feature underwater exhibits and aim to position Jeddah and Saudi Arabia as a leader in marine conservation.

Dubai-headquartered Dar al-Handasah secured the masterplan design contract linked to the project’s first phase last year.

For construction work, the local Modern Building Leaders (MBL) was awarded a contract in May 2022 that involves delivering infrastructure and marine works and demolishing about 400 buildings.

MEED previously reported that JCDC invited selected firms to submit bids by the end of August for a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the SR75bn ($20.4bn) Jeddah Central project.

JCDC was established in 2019 with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud chairing its board of directors.

It is wholly owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which also owns the project’s lands. 

The company secured land for the first phase of Jeddah Central, formerly New Jeddah Downtown, following an agreement with the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces Institute in March.

Jeddah Central is being developed on a 5.7 square-kilometre site and will comprise 17,000 residential units and 2,700 hotel keys, an opera house, a museum, a sports stadium and an oceanarium.

It will have six districts, named Central, Marina, Beach, Sports Park, Cultural & Creativity and Wellness.