Open for business: modern cities with a strong nod to heritage

The mega-projects that form part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 are playing a major role in the kingdom’s economic diversification efforts. Courtney Fingar reports.

Saudia Arabia made a splash at EXPO Real 2024. In its first-ever presence at the event, it showcased a raft of large-scale projects in the Invest Saudi pavilion.

“For us, we had to jump on the opportunity to be in that fantastic environment. There were a lot of great stories happening. I saw a lot of activity, good energy from many companies and projects from around the world,” said Fahad Al Hashem, assistant deputy minister in charge of investment development for the services sector in the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA).

“It’s also critical to communicate what we’re doing in the kingdom,” he added. “The scale of the projects we have is of a 100-times magnitude of what you see anywhere else. We’re firm believers in partnerships and we are committed to not just invite everybody to come and see and be part of what we’re doing in the kingdom, but for us to also come to events like this to connect with industry leaders, to look at the trends and to showcase the innovations and what we have planned.”

Among the projects presented at the fair was Diriyah, a 14 sq km development expected to eventually accommodate more than 100,000 people. Located just outside Riyadh, Diriyah, known as “The City of Earth”, is the ancestral seat of the House of Al Saud and birthplace of the first Saudi state in 1727.

In line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the Diriyah Company, established seven years ago, is working to transform the historic area into a global centre for culture, heritage and tourism. The project, inspired by traditional Najdi architecture, is one of Saudi Arabia’s five giga-projects under the national Public Investment Fund.

‘It’s critical to communicate what we’re doing in the kingdom. The scale of the projects we have is of a 100-times magnitude of what you see anywhere else.’

Fahad Al Hashem, Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia

“Diriyah is central to Vision 2030’s objectives of transforming not just Saudi Arabia’s economy, but its social contract too, and is playing a major role in economic diversification efforts,” said Jonathan Robinson, chief investment officer of the Diriyah Company.

With a $63.2 billion investment, it is projected to add $7.2 billion to the kingdom’s GDP, create 180,000 jobs and attract more 50 million visitors annually. The project is key to Saudi Arabia’s goal of increasing tourism’s contribution to GDP from 3% to 10% by the end of the decade.

At the core of Diriyah is At-Turaif, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that holds significant historical importance as the founding site of the kingdom and a symbol of Saudi heritage.

“Diriyah will be a modern city, but with a strong nod to heritage,” Robinson says.

The Diriyah Company is reaching out to investors, developers and other potential partners from around the world and is especially keen to bring in capital from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council. There are opportunities in a range of asset classes, including infrastructure, medical, retail, residential, offices, mixed-use and cultural facilities.

“We were at EXPO Real to say, ‘We’re here, we’re real’. We’ve done a lot of hard work and made a lot of progress already – we are largely on time and on budget and we’re now ramping up our engagement with the private sector,” Robinson says.

“We want to build strategic relationships that will last over the next decades. Saudi Arabia is transforming rapidly, and for those strategic investors and partners that want to play a role in this transformation, the time to engage with us is now,” he added.

A new downtown for Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh is experiencing rapid growth, sparking a need for new urban spaces. New Murabba, conceptualised as a modern downtown, is a key part of this evolution.

“Riyadh is growing quite significantly to the north-west. It’s already a very large city with more than seven million inhabitants. New Murabba has been designed and thought of as a new town centre for the city,” explains its chief development officer Carl Schibrowski. “It is a new way of thinking about Riyadh and a new urban model.”

The project is expected to generate more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs. It will include over 100,000 residential units, more than 9,000 hotel rooms, and over 300,000 sq m of immersive retail and entertainment space.

At the centre of this vast project will be the Mukaab, a striking and unique structure Schibrowski describes as “a gateway to another world” and “a city within a building, with all the elements of retail, residential, hospitality and entertainment included”.

The New Murabba Stadium will have a capacity of 45,000 and is scheduled to open by 2032.

This development presents an opportunity for global investors, particularly those in Europe, looking to expand their real estate holdings in the Middle East.

“Our participation at the EXPO was two-fold. It was about introducing the project to the market and about building awareness overall and showing that Riyadh and New Murabba are open for business,” said Schibrowski.

“We’re looking at establishing myriad partnerships across all asset classes, across operations, across technology, across infrastructure – the whole spectrum of what needs to be delivered.”