Saudi Arabia’s giant Diriyah project just got a lot closer to opening its doors. Diriyah Company has awarded two contracts worth more than SR2.7bn, or $729m, to build five hotels and three residential buildings at Diriyah Square. If you’ve been watching Saudi Arabia’s tourism boom from across the Gulf, this is the kind of number that shows the pace hasn’t slowed down.
Who’s building Diriyah Square, and why it matters to the GCC
The first contract, worth $375m, went to UCC Saudi, the local arm of Qatar’s UCC Holding. MEED had already reported this deal exclusively back in June, so the award confirms what insiders expected. This package, known as Package 4, covers mechanical, electrical and plumbing work along with finishing touches across roughly 110,000 square metres of built-up space. That’s a serious amount of floor area, close to the size of several large shopping malls combined.
The second contract, worth $353m, was handed to a joint venture between Saudi firm Almajal Alarabi, known as Mag, and Man Enterprise Al-Saudia, which is part of Lebanon’s Man Enterprise. Their job covers façade work, blockwork, interior fit-out, MEP systems and external works on two hotels and two residential towers. Between the two contracts, that’s eight major buildings taking shape at once, a sign of how fast construction is moving on the ground.
For GCC investors, contractors and hospitality operators, this matters because Diriyah isn’t a small development. It’s one of Saudi Arabia’s flagship gigaprojects, and contracts of this size tend to ripple outward. They create work for suppliers, subcontractors and logistics firms across the region, including companies based in the UAE that often bid for packages on Saudi giga-developments. When a project like this moves forward on schedule, it signals confidence that’s hard to ignore if you’re in construction, real estate or tourism investment anywhere in the Gulf.
What Diriyah is actually trying to become
Diriyah sits just northwest of central Riyadh, and the masterplan for the area covers 14 square kilometres. The vision is to turn the site into a major cultural and lifestyle tourism destination, one that blends 300 years of history and heritage with modern hospitality. Think boutique hotels, restaurants, cultural venues and residences built around a historic district rather than a single resort complex.
That approach is different from some other regional megaprojects that build entirely new cities from scratch. Diriyah is leaning into its heritage story, betting that culture and history can be just as strong a draw for tourists as beaches or entertainment parks. If it works, it adds another serious competitor to the UAE’s own tourism and hospitality sector, which has spent years positioning Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the region’s go-to destinations.
This is also part of a bigger pattern the region has been watching closely through innovation news coverage, where Saudi Arabia keeps pushing massive construction and tourism contracts even as global investors ask hard questions about financing and delivery timelines for gigaprojects. Diriyah pressing ahead with contract awards worth hundreds of millions of dollars suggests the project still has strong backing and momentum.
What to watch next is how fast these eight buildings actually rise, and whether more contract awards follow for the rest of Diriyah Square. If the pace holds, Riyadh could have a genuinely new heritage-tourism hub ready sooner than many expected, giving GCC travellers, hoteliers and investors another major destination to factor into their plans. This story was reported by MEED.
