Building into the unknown: What is the business model behind Jeddah’s plans for the world’s tallest tower?

New York’s Empire State Building, London’s Shard and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa all had specific reasons to build their record-breaking towers, but faced difficult times making them a financial success. As Jeddah’s Kingdom Tower rises out of the ground, Mounib Hammoud, CEO of developer Jeddah Economic Company, is sticking fast to the age-old ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy