HRH Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz has launched the New Murabba Development Company (NMDC) to develop New Murabba, planned to be the largest modern downtown in Riyadh and contribute to the city’s future development in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
The New Murabba project will be built around the concept of sustainability, featuring green areas and walking and cycling paths that will enhance the quality of life by promoting healthy, active lifestyles and community activities.
It will also feature an iconic museum, a technology and design university, a multipurpose immersive theatre, and more than 80 entertainment and culture venues.
What is the New Murabba project?
The NMDC project will be situated at the intersection of King Salman and King Khalid roads to the North West of Riyadh, over an area of 19km2, and “accommodate hundreds of thousands of residents”, Saudi Press Agency said.
The New Murabba project is due to be ready in 2030.
The project will offer more than 25 million m2 of floor area, featuring more than 104,000 residential units, 9,000 hotel rooms, and more than 980,000 m2 of retail space, as well as 1.4 million m2 of office space, 620,000 m2 of leisure assets, and 1.8 million m2 of space dedicated to community facilities.
The New Murabba project will offer unique living, working and entertainment experiences within a 15-minute walking radius and will have its own internal transport system.
It will be approximately 20-minutes drive from the airport.
The New Murabba project’s Mukaab
NMDC will develop the New Murabba project as well as build the Mukaab, an iconic landmark featuring innovative technologies.
The design of the Mukaab will make it one of the largest built structures in the world, standing 400m high, 400m wide, and 400m long.
The cubic shape of the Mukaab will ensure the ultimate utilisation of space to accommodate the technologies necessary to develop the icon.
Inspired by the modern Najdi architectural style, the Mukaab will be the world’s first immersive destination offering an experience created by digital and virtual technology with the latest holographics.
The Mukaab will encompass a tower atop a spiral base, and a structure featuring 2 million sqm of floor space that will be a premium hospitality destination with a multitude of retail, cultural and tourist attractions, along with residential and hotel units, commercial spaces, and recreational facilities.
The launch of NMDC is part of PIF’s strategy to unlock the capabilities of promising sectors, enable the private sector and increase local content, contribute to the development of real estate projects and the local infrastructure, and diversify sources of income for the Saudi economy.
It is expected to add $48 billion to non-oil GDP and create 334,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030.
National champions
News of New Murabba Development Company’s launch comes after the Crown Prince-led Public Investment Fund (PIF) confirmed investing $1.3 billion in Nesma & Partners Contracting Company, El Seif Engineering Contracting, Al Bawani Holding Company, and Almabani General Contractors Company.
The investments come as project development ramps up in the kingdom as it looks to achieve its Vision 2030 diversification mandate.
There is heightened demand for engineering talent on both an individual and corporate level to help Saudi construction projects take off in the run-up to 2030.
PIF’s investment in Saudi contractors is expected to help create the ‘national champions’ that are essential to help the local engineering sector achieve gigaproject development goals.
In January 2021, Riyadh’s plans to more than double its population and become one of the 10 richest cities in the world were unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) gathering in the Saudi capital.
“We are aiming to make Riyadh one of the 10 largest city economies in the world. Today it stands at number 40, the fortieth largest city economy worldwide. We also aim to increase its residents from 7.5 million today to around 15-20 million in 2030,’’ the Crown Prince added.