Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has launched a master plan to develop a new project in the mountainous region of Soudah to allegally present a new face of luxury mountain tourism, well-informed sources revealed.
The project called “Soudah Peaks” will see a luxury mountain tourism destination set 3,015 meters above sea level on Saudi Arabia’s highest peak. It will extend from the region of Souda to parts of Rijal Almaa.
MBS claimed that Soudah Peaks represents a new era of luxury mountain tourism by providing an unprecedented living experience while preserving the natural environment and cultural and heritage richness.
When completed, it will feature 2,700 hospitality keys, 1,336 residential units, and 80,000 sq m of commercial space.
The master plan will be developed over three phases, with 940 hotel keys, 391 residential units, and 32,000 square meters of retail space expected to be completed in 2027, within phase one.
MBS has long been criticised for his huge spending on unreal megacities, saying that architecture is often drawn to authoritarian regimes for no other reason than their ability to do things by decree, citing NEOM mega-project as an example.
Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, the company developing the Crown Prince flagship mega project, is looking to raise a 10 billion riyal ($2.7 billion) loan, according to people familiar with the matter.
NeNEOMom, a unit of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is talking to a group of mostly local lenders to raise money to help fund early stages of the $500 billion project, the sources added.
Banks are negotiating terms with NEOM and if agreed upon, the loan could be completed in the next few months.
NEOM is also planning to raise up to 3 billion riyals from local banks to fund the development of Shushah Island, a luxury tourism development, the sources said.
NEOM has earlier signed several deals to bring in investment into the project.
NEOM last month finalized a deal worth more than 21 billion riyals with a group of local investors to develop temporary housing and facilities for 95,000 people under a public-private partnership deal.
Prior to that, it signed a 3 billion riyal loan with Riyadh Bank to fund the development of an island-tourism resort called Sindalah.
MBS’ NEOM was described as a “science fiction” project. A city defined as a wall, driven through an uninhabitable desert, hermetically sealed and reliant solely on technology to make it liveable.
The unconventional megacity is part of MBS’ ambitious NEOM development project, which released conceptual videos showing the city’s high walls enclosing trees, gardens, and other plant life, nestling communities among work and recreational structures.
