The world’s largest real estate development, a project in the desert envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has welcomed its first residents, but the project is already more than three years behind schedule and has cost three times the projected budget, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Called Neom, the futuristic metropolis’ executives say that it will have 9 million residents by 2045. It is planned to span five regions, with a floating port city, a mountain ski resort and science fiction-esque skyscrapers, including a 30-story tower hanging upside down from a steel bridge, designed by Marvel movie artist Olivier Pron.
The project, launched in 2017, was the keystone of the crown prince's plan to diversify Saudi Arabia's oil-dependent economy, Vision 2030. The effort has already brought millions of women into the country’s workforce, grown the private sector to contribute nearly half of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product, and ushered forward smaller megaprojects in Riyadh.
But despite Neom’s opening party in October, the first phase remains a work in progress. Much of the low-rise island destination, Sindalah, is unfinished, according to the WSJ. Roughly $50B has been spent so far on Neom, including the first work on The Line, the 100-mile-long parallel skyscrapers that are the centerpiece of the effort.
Executives plan to build 10 miles of The Line by 2030, which would be the equivalent of building three times Midtown Manhattan’s office stock in a decade, according to the WSJ.
But a draft presentation from last year obtained by the WSJ now pegs the final cost of Neom at $8.8T by 2080, more than 25 times the annual Saudi budget. The first phase is reportedly projected to cost $370B by 2035.
A Neom spokeswoman told the publication that it was “incorrectly interpreting” and misrepresenting the figures but declined to provide additional detail.
Last year, Neom CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr abruptly left the company. The development has since been overseen by executives from the country's sovereign wealth fund.
An audit found that Neom employees have significantly adjusted projected profits to present rosy assumptions to the crown prince, with auditors finding “evidence of deliberate manipulation” of finances, the WSJ reported.
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