Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has reached out to contractors as part of a market-sounding exercise for the construction of the proposed 2-kilometre megatall tower project.

MEED understands that the process is being undertaken by a PIF subsidiary known as the Tower District Real Estate Development Company.

It is understood that several experienced international contractors and some prominent local contractors were approached.

The latest development follows PIF receiving offers from firms in June last year for a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) for a new central business district (CBD) on the outskirts of Riyadh, which includes the proposed 2-kilometre megatall tower project.

The PMC role covers both the tower and the surrounding district.

The firms invited to bid were understood to include Aecom, Jacobs, Parsons and Turner, all US-based, and the UK’s Mace.

UK-based Foster & Partners is working as the architect on the tower after it won a design competition launched in late 2022.

Record breaker

The proposed tower will be more than double the height of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres tall. It is expected to be at least several hundred metres taller than the 1,000-metre-plus tall tower that is being built in Jeddah.

Contractors that have priced megatall towers in the region say a 2km-tall structure could cost about $5bn to construct, depending on the final design.

The 2km tower and the surrounding CBD, which are known as Project Rise, sit within a larger masterplanned development to the north of Riyadh called the North Pole.