backKing & Spalding has advised Saudi Fransi Capital to launch King Salman Park Real Estate Development Fund, a real estate fund which will develop a mixed-use project on a plot in King Salman Park in Riyadh. The fund will undertake the development of the first real estate investment site in the park, covering an area of more than 290,000 square meters. At a total value of approximately $1.1 billion (SAR4 billion), this development project will comprise over 1,500 residential units that will include apartments and townhouses overlooking the park, with 140,000 square meters of gross leasable areas for offices and retail, hotels, schools, and several educational, health, sports, recreational and social facilities.
King Salman Park is one of Riyadh’s four giga projects which were announced on 19 March 2019. King Salman Park is intended to be the largest urban park in the world and will increase the per capita share of green space in Riyadh by 16 times, where more than 7.5 million trees will be planted throughout the city of Riyadh. The fund is regulated by the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (the CMA) and is the first public-private partnership fund launched under the CMA regime, utilizing an innovative financial and operational structure. The fund is managed by Saudi Fransi Capital, one of the leading financial institutions in Saudi Arabia and a subsidiary of Banque Saudi Fransi. King Salman Park Company for Investment and Real Estate Development acts as master developer, and Naif Al Rajhi Investment Company acts as real estate developer of the project. The King & Spalding team includes James Stull, Nabil Issa, Zaid Al-Farisi, Oliver Swerdlow, Sayf Shuqair and Husam Alhmary.