Saudi Arabia’s Jabal Omar Development Company, the firm behind a SR19bn real estate scheme in Mecca, has completed a SR5bn ($1.3bn) loan with a group of local banks, finally putting in place long term debt for the first phase of the project.

The SR5bn loan replaces a SR1.35 bridge loan that was put in place in October 2010. Money from a rights issue and a Finance Ministry loan will be used to fund some of the next phases of the project, but the company is understood to already be working on more funding to complete the entire development.

The latest deal has a tenor of 12 years and is being funded by seven banks. The Jabal Omar development will consist of 37 towers when it is completed.