Kingdom Tower: Four Seasons signs hotel deal with world's tallest building

The Saudi prince funding what is expected to be the world's tallest tower said he had struck a final agreement with Four Seasons to operate the hotel element of the project in Jeddah.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, announced on his website on Sunday that he had headed the fourth board of directors meeting of Jeddah Economic Company in Riyadh during which the board was updated about the final agreement with Four Seasons.
This related to operating the luxury hotel in the world's tallest tower. The board was also briefed by Talal Al Maiman, the executive director for development and chief executive of Kingdom Real Estate Development Company.
Four Seasons has been the proposed operator of the hotel element of the tower since its inception, but no formal operating agreement has yet been signed. The operator runs a number of hotels in Saudi Arabia and has recently expanded into Abu Dhabi.
Work on the long-awaited 1 kilometre tall tower, which has been valued at 4.6 billion Saudi riyals (Dh4.5bn), officially started on April 1 after Jeddah Economic Company appointed the contractors Mace and EC Harris to work on the project.
The tower will overtake the 830- metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world's tallest building when it is expected to be completed in 2018.
Waleed Batterjee, the chief executive for Jeddah Economic Company, said initial construction work on the project was going according to plan.
He updated the board regarding the progress of the piling works being undertaken by Saudi Bauer Company.
The board also reviewed memoranda of understanding relating to infrastructure and services for the project including electricity, water and district cooling, Kingdom Holding added on its website.
Kingdom Tower is the centrepiece of a plan to build a 5.2 square km, entirely new Kingdom City urban centre along the Red Sea coast.
In August 2011 Kingdom Holding struck a deal with the world's largest construction firm, Saudi Binladin Group, to build the tower and help to finance the project after various construction delays had led to speculation that the development had stalled.
 
lbarnard@thenational.ae