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The Saudi royal family’s dreams of building a giant city of the future in the middle of the desert are facing a harsh reality.
Saudi Arabia’s plans to build the “city of the future,” Neom, which includes a huge all-inclusive resort on the coast, a second ski resort in the mountains, and a pair of 480-meter-long skyscrapers called The Line, are facing serious financial problems.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that the capital cost estimates for Neom have previously ballooned to $8.8 trillion—25 times the Saudi kingdom’s annual budget. What’s more, the project won’t be completed until 2080.
Worse, an audit report found that officials tried to cook the numbers to hide evidence of the project’s inflated costs. The audit found “evidence of deliberate manipulation” of finances by “certain members of the leadership.” It’s a new development that highlights the grandiose and unrealistic goals set by Neom’s chief backer, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
According to the WSJ, officials are also trying to shield the royal from harsh reality. For example, in an apparent attempt to make the Neom ski resort appear to have an internal rate of return that matches some sky-high expectations, officials have raised projected prices for lodging at the yet-to-be-built facility. A single room at a “boutique backpacker hotel,” previously priced at $489, was adjusted to $1,866. And an “ingenious glamping retreat” jumped from $216 to $794 per night.
These efforts were reportedly aided by McKinsey consultants hired by the project.
The officials then tried to hide this manipulation of costs. An email says Antoni Vives, who was put in charge of the beach resort called Sindala, told consultants that “we shouldn’t even mention the cost up front” before a major meeting, according to the WSJ.
In particular, the cost of The Line has skyrocketed. The original plan was for this skyscraper to stretch 100 miles across the desert, but that plan is looking increasingly unlikely. Even plans for the first part of the skyscraper have been revised from ten miles to just 1.5 miles over the next decade.
A recommendation to reduce the planned height of the pair of skyscrapers from 1,500 feet to about 1,000 feet to save money was flatly rejected by Crown Prince bin Salman himself.
By all accounts, the Neom project appears to have become a mess of unprecedented proportions. And even the management is on shaky ground. Former Neom CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr quit in November, weeks after a documentary alleged that tens of thousands of foreign workers had already died in building the city.
For now, the Sindala resort is still largely unfinished—despite Saudi officials throwing a lavish $45 million opening party in October that included a celebrity crowd including actor Will Smith and American football quarterback Tom Brady.
But this resort’s golf course and hotels have yet to open to the public four months later. Meanwhile, consulting firm McKinsey is making money. The company has earned more than $130 million a year for its services, according to the WSJ. However, a company spokesman denies that the firm “engaged in financial reporting manipulation.”