The Saudi Real Estate Company Rikaz has signed contracts worth SR122 million ($32.5 million), which represent the final stage of contracts to develop al-Fanar City, located on the coastline between the cities of al-Damam and al-Khubar, reported the Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan on April 10, 2005.
Rikaz's president and CEO, Khalid H. al-Gahtani, said that the company is preparing studies for 14 investment opportunities in the project, as a preliminary step toward offering it to investors within a year. He mentioned that the company is investing in the construction of 3,000 housing units, to fulfill its role in solving the current housing crisis.
Several Saudi specializing companies won contracts for maritime works and waterfront construction, infrastructure works, and sewage works, all of them scheduled to be ended at the end of March 2006.
The Fanar City, Saudi Arabia’s first residential project specifically aimed at non-GCC property owners, will comprise residential, commercial, and leisure facilities. The 3.3 million square-metre project, which will have the longest seafront in Saudi Arabia of over 4,000 metres, will have water-front houses, condominiums, apartments, hotels, a marina, shopping and leisure conveniences, and Saudi Arabia’s largest private lagoon.