King Abdullah Financial District Acceleration Study

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is large mixed-use development and the commercial heart of Riyadh.

This new business district has redefined the capital city’s skyline and includes commercial, residential, retail, entertainment and education facilities. It is operated by the King Abdullah Financial District Development & Management Company (KAFD DMC), a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is a large mixed-use development and the commercial heart of Riyadh.

Our experts interrogated the development strategy and devised a procurement, phasing and logistics plan for KAFD’s new, unbuilt, areas: 6 and 7.

We were able to demonstrate the benefits of analysing masterplans of this scale by using a structured and quantitative approach based on benchmarks and key metrics.

Our integrated strategy accelerated the overall completion date and enabled early activation of key assets while maintaining access to completed parts of the project.

Challenge

The KAFD development considered in the study is split into three major areas referred to as The Leaf, Area 6 and Area 7. The Leaf is predominantly constructed, but not complete, while Areas 6 and 7 have had some construction commenced prior to re-masterplanning, which was undertaken to realign the development with KAFD DMC’s objectives.

Buro Happold was appointed to provide implementation planning and procurement expertise with the production of a study to identify the most efficient implementation approach, with a particular focus on finding solutions that would help to speed up the completion of key assets. The client had previously prepared a development strategy internally and wanted to test delivery feasibility and explore how procurement routes might support accelerated delivery.

Solution

Our team interrogated the client’s existing strategy and developed an approach which used a model that integrated asset development information, delivery schedule, forecast construction workforces, construction-related traffic and project cashflow. This model was then used to quantitively test different delivery scenarios to identify an optimal solution.

The result was an integrated delivery solution, which included procurement packaging, phasing, delivery scheduling (design, procurement, construction and activation) and high-level logistics to suit phased activation.

Our solution brought innovation to the client’s procurement practices by introducing Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) in combination with a detailed contracting strategy, design development and tender plan. Our team worked closely with the client to identify critical challenges on anchor plots and strategic changes required at an organisational level to be able to implement this strategy.

Finally, we created a dynamic 4D model of the development that was able to demonstrate in a visually-compelling way, the benefits of using our proposed solution. We were able to demonstrate that our integrated approach which used strategic packaging and phasing, far from slowing down the project, would in fact cut as much as a year off the delivery and opening of early assets. For one plot alone, this meant an earlier start and potentially bringing opening forward by a year.

Value

The approach provided a quantitative as well as visual illustration of the delivery process, phasing, key metrics and risks to support KAFD DMC making the assured decisions for the delivery of Areas 6 and 7. The study also helped define the most efficient approach for the sub-division of work into procurement packages.

The formal report provided a narrative of the analysis performed and recommendations made, giving regional and international benchmarking metrics for similar projects, explanations of the logic of construction schedules, procurement strategy evaluations and solution implementation procedures.

We further supported the client with the development of contracting strategies, drafting scope of works and RFPs (requests for proposals) for immediate procurement requirements. Our experts also delivered an executive presentation to communicate improved outcomes, implementation steps and key decisions to the KAFD DMC Board of Directors.