Saudi Arabia has invited private investors and developers to participate in its public-private partnership (PPP) tender for a mixed-use waterfront project at the Al Khobar Corniche.

The Eastern Province Municipality is offering the Al Khobar waterfront PPP development project under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model with a concession period of 25 years, the Saudi National Centre for Privatisation and PPP (NCP) announced on Monday via its twitter account.

The project would span three separate plots of land with a total area of 60,960 square metres (sqm), NCP said in a statement on published on its website. Plot A, with an area of 25,980 sqm, would house a retail mall, an entertainment asset and casual Food and Beverage (F&B); Plot B (25,980 sqm) would house high-end retail, upscale F&B and an entertainment asset while Plot C (9,000 sqm) would house a luxury hotel and upscale F&B.

The final date for the submission of Expression of Interest (EOI) is 13 December 2020, NCP said on its website. The proposed date for the issue of Request for Qualification is 20 December 2020 with a submission deadline of 14 February 2021. The Request for Proposal is expected to be issued on 21 March 2021.

In a related press statement, NCP said the PPP project is the second municipal sector initiative launched under the privatisation programme.

"The Ministry of Finance will finance part of the project's capital expenditures under the Projects Support Fund programme framework, as one of the stimulus initiatives, to support the sustainability and completion of projects - provided that some requirements are met," the statement said.

Earlier this month, NCP had announced that the Saudi education ministry and Tatweer Building Company, owned by the Public Investment Fund, had signed a PPP contract with the consortium of Ajyad Knowledge Company for Education and Training and Al Bawani Company to finance, design, build and manage 60 public schools in Makkah and Jeddah.

(Writing by Syed Ameen Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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