King Abdullah Financial District

[crowd chanting] [upbeat music]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this week, the General Entertainment Authority, on behalf of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, in partnership with WWE, announced that Crown Jewel will emanate from the Riyadh Season Stadium at KAFD on Saturday, November 7th, as part of Riyadh Season's world-class sports and entertainment calendar.

Tickets will be available soon by visiting webook.com. And again, congratulations to Trick Williams.

The new and once again United States Champion.

Like I said, it's fairly dull.

Surprisingly, the document reflects on the mistakes made in developing the King Abdullah Financial District, a Saudi megaproject that had started 10 years earlier, and was by 2016 plagued by delays and a lack of enthusiasm from potential tenants and investors.

The white paper points out that the biggest mistake was that the King Abdullah Financial District had been started without consideration of its economic feasibility.

They explain that its challenges were deepened by the fact that it had been developed in a single phase, which pushed up construction costs and could be partially blamed for a lot of the delays.

They highlight that this massive development resulted in a large oversupply of commercial space, and that renting out the 3 million square meters of built up areas at reasonable prices, or even achieving decent occupancy rates, would be extremely challenging.

Instead of building 106 mile, 500 meter tall building, they at first reduced it to 10 miles and then to a mile and a half by 2030, which still involves constructing the equivalent of all of the office buildings in Midtown Manhattan three times over in the next five years according to The Wall Street Journal, which the article says would require a significant portion of the world's available steel and glass.

So I guess I can see why you might not build the full 106 miles all at once.

They have already dug some of the hole, which is a big deal, and I guess it's actually pretty smart of them to scale it back, as if you remember, the original white paper pointed out that it had been a mistake building the King Abdullah Financial District in a single phase, as it flooded the market with unused office space that was impossible to rent out.

Target has hired former Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein as Chief Marketing and Guest Experience Officer, with a remit spanning channels, culture, and community, Marketing Dive reports.

And finally, Saudi Arabia's Information Ministry, Tahluf, and the Global Lions System will stage a Riyadh Lions Festival from the 6th to the 8th of December, 2027, at King Abdullah Financial District, Urdu Point reports.

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