New Murabba CEO promises Riyadh district’s core by 2030

Saudi Press Agency

• Mukaab cube ‘fully functioning’ by end of 2030
• City to host World Expo in 2030-31
• Seeking investors to supplement PIF funding

The New Murabba giga-project, which aims to create a 19-sq-km city district in Riyadh, will be up and running by December 2030, its CEO said this week. 

Michael Dyke told a tourism forum in Dubai: “What’s important is to say that New Murabba is real, tangible today. It’s physically there, it’s not something on a piece of paper that is designed out in several years to come or decades to come.”

The giga-project, which has been one of the Public Investment Fund’s late starters, has at its centre a cube-shaped building called the Mukaab, which Dyke described as the “most complex structure ever known to man”.

Dyke said: “We have 2,283 days until the 31st of December 2030 and that will be the point by which the core downtown is online. The Mukaab sits at the heart of that and will be fully functioning.”

This means it will be open when the Saudi capital hosts the World Expo from October 2030 to March 2031.

New Muraab

Some PIF-run giga-projects have run into trouble because lower-than-expected oil prices and foreign direct investment mean less money is available. The timelines of these developments are being extended as a result. 

Earlier this year PIF said linear city The Line, part of the Neom giga-project, would open in 2030 at less than 5km, instead of the 170km initially announced. 

Real estate consultancy Knight Frank has valued New Murabba at $50 billion, making it one of Saudi Arabia’s most expensive giga-projects, but said only $3.6 billion had been commissioned by the end of 2023.

Dyke declined to comment this week on the giga-project’s costs.  

He said New Murabba was looking for investors to supplement its PIF funding and help develop some of its 18 communities, which will be ranged around the Mukaab. 

Each community will house up to 35,000 residents, giving a potential maximum population of 630,000 people. The green space will be twice the size of New York’s Central Park. As a “smart city”, it will follow the 15-minute concept in urban planning for easy accessibility to all amenities, Dyke said. 

• PIF’s huge ambitions come at vast expense
• Giga-project slowdown to hit Riyadh population growth
• Groundwork begins on Riyadh’s Mukaab

Dyke, who was born in the UK and formerly worked as CEO of HS2 Major Projects at Balfour Beatty, said: “We are open for business, not just in terms of long-term enduring investments in the asset classes but also in terms of partnerships to deliver the assets themselves.” 

Red Sea Global, another PIF giga-project, said this week it was looking for a second credit facility worth about SAR14 billion ($3.7 billion) as it pushes ahead with the opening of luxury hotels on the Red Sea coast. 

Dyke also told the tourism forum the Mukaab was the most challenging engineering project undertaken in modern construction.

“I genuinely believe it’s a modern-day marvel. It is the most complex structure ever known to man, ever built,” he said. 

“When inside, it is the world’s largest immersive experience. There is effectively an immersive dome which is 340 metres in diameter, 340 metres high, so when inside you are transported to another world. Mukaab will be famous for being a gateway to another world.”

Futurism is a central theme of the giga-projects, reflecting the interests of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is leading the Vision 2030 strategy that aims to transform Saudi Arabia into a tech pioneer.