Khaleej Times

World’s tallest building delayed to 2019

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jeddah — The completion date for the world’s tallest tower has been pushed back to 2019, a Saudi Arabian billionair­e said on Thursday, almost six years after launching the record-breaking project.

Jeddah Tower is to rise more than a kilometre (almost 3,300 feet), placing it above Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

“The project was delayed... but it’ll open (in) 2019,” Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told AFP during a visit to the site beside the Red Sea.

Alwaleed chairs Kingdom Holding Co whose affiliated Jeddah Economic Company is developing the spire-topped landmark.

The project contractor Saudi Binladin Group was among constructi­on firms in the kingdom that suffered financiall­y after a collapse in oil revenues from 2014.

The company, which developed other prominent buildings in Saudi Arabia, was founded more than 80 years ago.

Binladin Group late last year said it had completed payment to 70,000 laid-off employees.

Alwaleed first announced plans for the tower in August 2011, saying it would take 36 months to build after the start of constructi­on.

By November 2014, a four-storey foundation was in place and Alwaleed said the building would be finished in 2018.

In November 2015, Kingdom Holding said Jeddah Economic Company had reached a financing deal with Saudi Arabia’s Alinma Investment to finish the Jeddah Tower, which then had 26 floors.

Alwaleed on Thursday rode a constructi­on elevator about 30 floors to meet reporters in the concrete shell of the building, which already offers spectacula­r views over the rest of Jeddah and the adjacent sea.

Kingdom Holding has shares in the Euro Disney theme park, Apple, News Corporatio­n and US banking giant Citigroup, among other firms. —

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