Burj Al Meel Mile high Skyscraper will be the Skyscraper Built by the Bailout of Citigroup


Kingdom Holding Company plans to build the Mile High Tower (Burj Al Meel) in Jeddah. The Mile High Tower could reach a height of 1,600 meters (one mile), the total built up area is 170,000 sq.m. The tower is part of the Kingdom City, a community development including residential units, commercial space, office area, education vicinity, entertainment facilities and hotels.

Kingdom Holding company remains in good financial shape

Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) made a net income of SR75.2 million ($20 million) in the three months to end of March, approximately a 50 percent increase over last year’s first quarter results. The company’s shareholders’ equity increased from SR21.6 billion as of March 31, 2009, to SR25.8 billion (about USD$ 7 billion) as of March 31, 2010, representing a year on year increase of 19.5 percent, or approximately SR1.14 per share in book value, the company said in a statement.

Alwaleed transferred about 2.24 billion riyals of Citigroup Inc. shares to Kingdom to enable the Saudi company to pay dividends and improve earnings. Kingdom rose the most in three months in Riyadh before the results were released and after Citigroup said yesterday that profit more than doubled in the first quarter

Assuming that the Burj Al Meel is built, then it will be the skyscraper that had a lot of key financial support from the American bailout of Citigroup. Most of the rest of the support from US dependence on oil.

The contract was initially tendered out as a DB contract. In Q1 2010, the contract type was changed into construction. JV of Hyder Consulting and Arup is the project consultant. Bechtel is the PMC, and Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture is the project architect.

In March 2010, Kingdom Holding selected Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture as the project architect for the project.

14 April 2010 was the bids submission deadline for the construction contract.

Citigroup Bailout Retrospective
The New American Citigroup Bailout Retrospective

* In the fall of 2008, Citibank received a total of $45 billion to keep it afloat. Later, $25 billion was converted to common stock, and $20 billion was paid back by Citigroup to the Treasury.
* The Washington Post wrote in December, 2009, that “the federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout….as a result, Citigroup will be allowed to retain billions of dollars worth of tax breaks.” Robert Willens, a tax accountant, added, “The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenues. It’s another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance, but certainly another form. I’ve been doing taxes for 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
* The government also agreed to charge taxpayers for up to $277 billion in losses on troubled Citi assets, many of them those toxic CDOs that Rubin had pushed Citi to invest in.

So some of the benefit of US taxpayer generosity will be a mile high skyscraper in jeddah, saudi arabia.

Jeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The population of the city currently stands at over 3.4 million. It is considered the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is the principal gateway to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

The map above will help geographically challenged americans to know where to look for the skyscraper.

Will the US taxpayer get some thank you cards or a plaque on the future building ? Or a statue at the future building site ?

Previous Burj Al Meel coverage at nextbigfuture:
Burj al Meel Mile High Tower Proceeded to Award Design Contract in Octover 2009

Kingdom Holding Company is still planning a mile high tower as is reviewing design bids despite the recent worldwide financial crisis. It is a currently estimated USD 13,300,000,000 project (13.3 billion dollar).

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud moved forward with plans to build the world’s tallest building (2008), the biggest challenge facing the Saudi billionaire appears to be keeping people from feeling seasick a mile up in the sky.

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