Kingdom Tower - Timeline

Timeline

In May 2008, soil testing in the area cast doubt over whether the proposed location could support a skyscraper of the proposed one mile height, and MEED reported that the project had been scaled back, making it "up to 500 metres (1,640 ft) shorter."

Reports in 2009 suggested that the project had been put on hold due to the global economic crisis and that Bechtel (the former engineering firm) was "in the process of ending its involvement with the project." Kingdom Holding Company quickly criticized the news reports, insisting that the project had not been shelved.

In March 2010, Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) was selected as the preliminary architect (though they deny involvement in the earlier, mile-high designs). Later, when the proposal was more serious, they won a design competition between eight leading architectural firms including Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pickard Chilton, Pelli Clarke Pelli, and Foster + Partners, as well as the firm Smith formerly worked for, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which was the final competitor in the competition before AS + GG was chosen. In addition to Burj Khalifa, Adrian Smith has designed several other recent supertall towers; the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center in Nanjing, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, Illinois, and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, as well as the Pearl River Tower, which is still under construction in Guangzhou, China. The four buildings are all among the top eleven tallest in the world, and the Pearl River Tower is a unique tower that uses zero net energy as it gets all its power from wind, sunlight, and geothermal mass.

In October 2010, the owners (Kingdom Holding Company) signed a development agreement with Emaar Properties PJSC. The final height of the building was questionable, but it was still listed to be over 1 kilometer. Kingdom Holding said construction was progressing.

In March and April 2011, several news agencies reported that the Mile-High Tower design had been approved at that height and that the building would cost almost US$30 billion (SR112.5 billion). This design was going to be drastically larger than the current design, with a floor area of 3,530,316 m2 (38,000,000 sq ft) and would have utilized futuristic wind aversion and energy producing technology for sustainability. It and the surrounding City would have had the ability to accommodate 80,000 residents and one million visitors, according to RIA Novosti. Many things were rumored about the mile-high designs, such as that it would be so high the top would freeze at night, helicopters would be used for construction, parachutes would be part of the fire escape plan, and that an elevator ride to the top would take 12 minutes (multiple transfers would be required) in a typical elevator and five minutes in a high-speed elevator. Adrian Smith denied that he was a part of any of the earlier designs, which had been purported in the media. One source even corrected its article and clarified the misunderstanding.

In early August 2011, the Binladin Group was chosen as the main construction contractor with the signing of a SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion) contract, which is less than it cost to build the Burj Khalifa (US$1.5 billion). New renderings were revealed and on 2 August it was widely reported that the project was a go at the 1,000 m (3,281 ft) height with a building area of 530,000 square metres (5,704,873 sq ft), and will take 63 months to complete. Construction is expected to start no later than December 2011. The foundation for the tower has already been designed and the contract for the piling is being tendered. Announcement of the main construction contract signing caused Kingdom Holding Company's stock to jump 3.2% in one day, in addition to KHC already having reported a 21% rise in second quarter net profit. Also, for the first time, architects Gordon Gill and Adrian Smith officially announced their involvement in the project.

On 21 September 2012 it was announced that financing for the Kingdom Tower was complete. Talal Al Maiman, chief executive officer and managing director of Kingdom Real Estate Development Co. said in an interview "We have all the investors, all the finance, all the money we need," Al Maiman said. "It took us beyond 20 months to convince investors, working every detail and aspect of financing."

On 10 October 2012, Kingdom Holdings awarded contracts totaling $98 million. Kingdom Holding Co. has signed a deal with Subul Development Company for the sale of land in the Kingdom Riyadh Land project for $66.5 million. The Kingdom Riyadh Land project, a mixed-use commercial and residential development, will generate more than $5.33 billion of total investment and will house up to 75,000 people. The final master plan contract was awarded to Omrania & Associates and Barton Willmore. Bauer, a German Foundations equipment manufacturer and contractor was awarded a US $32 million contract to support the initial phases of construction of the Kingdom Tower. This includes the installation of 270 bored piles with diameters of 1.5 meters and 1.8 meters. The enabling works are expected to begin before the end of 2012 and take about 10 months to complete.