Middle East
First of fourteen Saudi entertainment destinations opens in Aseer after a compressed delivery
By Staff Writer | 13 August 2026
SEVEN Abha has opened as the first completed project in a nationwide programme, delivered under a single management framework that pulled 150 contractors onto one set of controls.
Saudi Entertainment Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qiddiya Investment Company, opened the destination on 5 August 2026 under the patronage of Prince Turki bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Aseer and Chairman of the Aseer Development Authority. Abdullah Al Dawood, Chairman of SEVEN, attended with members of the leadership team.
The development covers more than 91,000 square metres of built up area and sits within the Abha International Airport cluster. It carries a value of SAR 1.5 billion and is the first of fourteen entertainment destinations planned across Saudi Arabia under a programme supporting the Public Investment Fund's push into entertainment and sport.
It is also the first project in that programme to reach completion, which makes its delivery record the only one currently available to benchmark the remaining thirteen against.
One framework, 150 contractors
Khatib & Alami acted as programme management consultant, running design and procurement through construction, testing and commissioning to handover. Its role was to bring the client's consultants, contractors and specialists under a unified governance framework with common standards for quality, delivery and safety.
The numbers behind that give a sense of the interface load. The team coordinated 150 contractors, oversaw more than 1.6 million workflow actions, 165,000 document records and 46,000 formal communications. Delivery ran on a common data environment with information exchange handled through two commercial platforms, supported by building information modelling, laser scanning, four dimensional simulation and augmented reality across design, construction and commissioning.
Under the leadership of our client, SEVEN Abha has been an excellent example of how to deliver a complex project at pace. With specialist attractions, technical systems and commercial interfaces progressing simultaneously, K&A's role was to ensure stakeholders were fully aligned to keep delivery moving at every stage through to opening.
Dany Ghandour, Vice President for programme management consultancy and facilities management at Khatib & Alami
The project achieved LEED Gold, with sustainability requirements written into design, material selection and construction methods, and recorded more than 15 million safe working hours.
What is inside, and what comes next
The destination brings together family entertainment, immersive experiences and themed public spaces drawn from the landscape and cultural identity of Aseer. Attractions include Formula E Karting alongside operator developed concepts named Kawaken, GolFi, Cyber Bowling and Scene Cinema.
The opening was preceded by a week of activity across Abha and followed by five days of celebration, each themed to a different part of the region's identity, from heritage and crafts through local enterprise, family programming and regional food to evening performances.
Marwan Abbas, Project Director at the consultancy, said that successful transition into operation depended on close coordination across every workstream, with quality and safety remaining central throughout.
For contractors bidding the next thirteen, the interesting figure is not the floor area. It is 46,000 formal communications on a single 91,000 square metre asset, and what that volume of correspondence implies about notice regimes, records and the cost of running a claim on the rest of the programme.