New Murabba is establishing a new ‘downtown’ for Riyadh

The New Murabba development in Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh could be thought of as being the city’s new modern downtown according to Carl Schibrowski, Chief Development Officer, New Murabba Development Company.

Schibrowski explained that Riyadh is growing significantly towards the north-west. It is already a very large city with over seven million inhabitants and New Murabba has been conceived as its new town centre.

“Projects of this scale are never delivered by one organisation,” Schibrowski said. His company attended the recent EXPO Real event in Munich which he explained was in part about introducing the project to the market and building awareness and setting the tone that Riyadh and New Murabba are open for business.

“We’re looking at establishing a myriad of partnerships across all asset classes, across operational capability, across technology infrastructure – the whole spectrum of what needs to be delivered.” He said that every project has its role to play within the overall development of the Kingdom and towards its 2030 Vision.

He said that New Murabba is first and foremost the Mukaab. “I think it’s been described as, ‘a gift to the people’. It’s an icon for the city, but it’s really much more than that. It’s an attractor – we describe it as ‘a gateway to another world’.”

The Mukaab is the world’s largest digitally immersive environment but  Schibrowski said, “it’s really a city within a building as well”.

“There’s all the elements: retail; residential; hospitality; entertainment, all included within that. It’s about establishing that as a new city centre.”

Surrounding it will be a new urban model for over 400,000 people to call home. There are very diverse demographics, Schibrowski explained. But while some elements of New Murabba are a conventional roll out, they are being done in a very different way.

“There’s a very wide audience, but if I was going to say where New Murabba’s place is within the overall spectrum of projects, it’s really about being for the people, all about a new way of thinking about Riyadh, taking all of those traditions forward.

“And it’s about putting a memorable icon in the city so that when people think about Riyadh they will imagine the Mukaab.”

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