Saudi developer to build 3,280ft skyscraper costing a whooping $2BILLION

The Saudi developer behind plans for the world's tallest building said Sunday it had secured financing to complete the record-breaking project. Kingdom Holding Co, chaired by billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said its affiliate Jeddah Economic Company had reached a more than $2 billion (1.9 billion euro) financing deal with Saudi Arabia's Alinma Investment to finish the Jeddah Tower in the Red Sea city.

Previously dubbed 'Kingdom Tower', the 170-storey building is to rise more than a kilometre (almost 3,300 feet), surpassing Dubai's Burj Khalifa as the world's highest building.

  

Costs for the project had previously been estimated at 4.6 billion riyals ($1.2 billion). The Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at 2,716 feet. New York City's Freedom Tower, currently the fifth tallest in the world, is dwarf-like at 1,792 feet. 

'Alinma Bank will finance the fund, to be managed by Alinma Investment, while Jeddah Economic Company will be the master developer of projects that will draw on the fund's credit lines,' the statement said.