The US-based Hill International has been awarded a SR69.8m ($18.6m) contract to provide project management services for the Jabal Omar mixed-use project in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The Jabal Omar development includes 37 towers with a total built up area of 2 million square metres. The scheme will be situated on a total area covering 230,000 square metres. The project will include residential, retail and religious buildings.

The local Saudi Oger and Saudi Binladin construction companies have been awarded the main construction contracts to build the mixed-use development.

“Saudi Oger and Saudi Binladin are on site and the project is expected to take three years to complete,” said a source involved with the project.

The client is the local Jabal Omar Development Company.

MEED recently reported that Jabal Omar is working on a SR1.35bn bridge loan to cover the early stage of the real estate project, as plans to put in place larger funding sources have fallen behind schedule.

The bridge loan is expected to be in place by the end of September, with two larger fundraisings due to be concluded before the end of the year. Jabal Omar had hoped to complete around SR3bn of bank financing in the first half of the year, followed by a SR2bn rights issue in the third quarter (MEED 5:9:10).