Work has officially restarted on the world’s tallest building, the 1km-tall Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, with the aim of finishing it by the end of 2028.
The $1.9bn scheme is being built by Saudi Binladen Group for the Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), a developer owned by tycoon Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, a grandson of Abdulaziz al-Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia.
The prince posted the news on his X account with a promotional video for the building under the heading “We’re back”.
Work on the tower began in 2013, but was halted in November 2017 when Al Waleed was caught up in an anti-corruption drive launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He was released from detention on 27 January 2018, and in 2022 he agreed to sell 17% of his Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the parent of JEC, to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
When work stopped, 63 of the building’s 157 storeys had been completed.
The tower will be the centrepiece of KHC’s $20bn Jeddah Economic City development, a 500ha urban quarter due to be completed in 2030.
The tower was designed by US architect Adrian Smith, who also designed the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, now the world’s tallest building.
The firm of Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill is still retained on the project, as is Lebanese consulting engineer Dar al-Handasah.
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