Olayan Moves Its New Headquarters Into Al Bustan Park

JLL has been named exclusive leasing agent for Al Bustan Business Park, a 35,000 sqm Grade A office campus in northern Riyadh due in Q2 2027. One of the six office buildings is reserved as Olayan Financing Company’s new headquarters.

The June 29, 2026 appointment hands JLL the rest of the park: five office buildings and two food pavilions around a landlord that will occupy the same plot.

Olayan Is Moving Its Headquarters Into the Park

Olayan Financing Company is the Riyadh parent of The Olayan Group’s Middle East business. The group dates to 1947, when Suliman S. Olayan started trading in the Kingdom, and the financing company was set up in 1969 to hold the regional portfolio.

That portfolio already includes listed equities, private deals, and property across Saudi Arabia. The new park is not a side bet by a distant landlord. It is the address OFC has chosen for itself.

Current filings still list Olayan Plaza on Al Ihsa Road as the Riyadh head office. The Al Bustan plan moves that centre of gravity north, into Al Arid, and puts the family office in one of the six office blocks it will also lease to other tenants.

THE BUILD CALENDAR

1. 1947: Suliman S. Olayan founds the group in Saudi Arabia.
2. 1969: Olayan Financing Company is established as the Middle East parent.
3. April 2013: Al-Bustan Village opens as an executive housing compound in north Riyadh.
4. 2022-2023: Ayesa Engineering designs the business park for Al Bustan Oasis Real Estate Company.
5. August 14, 2025: BEC Arabia, the contractor, posts that it has the build for Olayan Financing Company.
6. June 29, 2026: JLL is named exclusive leasing agent.
7. Q2 2027: Completion is scheduled, with OFC’s headquarters in one of the six office buildings.

JLL and Olayan already work together on other business lines in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Riyadh mandate is the first time that relationship is being used to lease a campus the client will also occupy.

The Village That Already Carries the Name

Al Bustan is not a new brand in the north of the capital. Olayan’s housing arm has been running Al-Bustan Village there for more than a decade, and the business park reuses the name on an office plot in Al Arid on Abi Bakr al-Siddiq Road.

THE VILLAGE ALREADY ON THE GROUND

• Opening: The compound opened its doors in April 2013 as executive housing for working families.
• Land: It sits on 180 acres of gardens, with access toward King Salman Road and King Fahad Road and a short run to King Khaled International Airport.
• Homes: It opened with 646 villas and 190 apartments, then added 186 more units, taking the community to 1,022 homes.
• Owner: Al-Bustan Company Ltd is a wholly owned unit of Olayan Financing Company, so the landlord of the new offices already employs staff under the same name.

July 2026 hiring notes for accountants at Al Bustan, Olayan Company, show that payroll is still being filled on the residential side. The office park arrives as an extension of an employer that already operates in north Riyadh, not as a cold start in an empty district.

Ayesa Engineering, which designed the park, placed it on previously undeveloped land covering 31,044 square meters in Al Arid. The brief was five premier office buildings aimed at tech firms, a new headquarters for the Olayan Group, and two catering pavilions in landscaped grounds. That is the same eight-building count as the leasing pack: six offices (five for tenants plus the HQ) and two food buildings.

Six Office Buildings and Two for Food

JLL’s appointment notice is the figure that tenants will underwrite. It puts Grade A office GLA at 35,000 sqm, with typical floors from 1,000 to 2,000 sqm, and two basement levels of parking. Ayesa’s dining programme adds 2,000 sqm of catering space in the two pavilions. The parking ratio itself was not published.

THE AL BUSTAN PROGRAM

BEC Arabia is the contractor. Salfo Engineering and Management is listed as consultant on the build. BEC has been describing the job as offices, dining and parking since August 14, 2025, months before a leasing agent was named.

We are honored to have been awarded for our continued commitment to excellence and are excited to introduce the Al Bustan Business Park an ambitious new venture in the heart of Riyadh for Olayan Financing Company. This visionary development features cutting-edge office spaces,… pic.twitter.com/sJ1igmddFB

— BEC Arabia (@BEC_Arabia) August 14, 2025

Shell-and-core floors are the product. Tenants take an unfinished plate and build their own layout, which is how a 1,000 to 2,000 sqm floor can be split, stacked, or held as a single plate.

What JLL Has Been Hired to Fill

JLL’s brief is the leasing strategy, the tenant mix, and the paperwork on the five office buildings that are not the headquarters. Dana Williamson, Head of Offices, Business Space and Retail, MEA at JLL, tied the pitch to quality stock in a tight market and to multinational demand.

Al Bustan Business Park, positioned in one of the Saudi capital’s most distinguished business addresses, benefits from the flight-to-quality trend. The combination of flexible, high-quality spaces in a highly sought-after location offering unparalleled accessibility and connectivity across Riyadh is attracting significant interest amongst leading businesses and multinational tenants. Our partnership with Olayan Financing Company reinforces our commitment to driving Saudi Arabia’s transformation and modernization under the framework of Vision 2030’s goals.

Dana Williamson, Head of Offices, Business Space and Retail, MEA at JLL

Having OFC as a named occupier is the part of that pitch JLL does not have to manufacture. A family office that will sit in the next building is a different selling point from a vacant park with a brochure. The risk sits in the other five buildings. Those still have to be leased into a city that is about to receive a much larger wave of Grade A space.

Ayesa wrote the five tenant buildings for technology companies. That matches the enquiry mix Savills logged in Riyadh, where technology, media and telecommunications accounted for 54.5 percent of office enquiries in the second quarter of 2026, with banking, financial services and insurance at 27.3 percent.

Grade A Occupancy Held at 98 Percent

Riyadh’s Grade A market was still tight when JLL took the mandate. Savills, in its Q2 2026 office report published on July 14, 2026, put Grade A occupancy remaining at 98% and said constrained supply was still holding up prime rents.

THE RIYADH OFFICE SNAPSHOT

• Grade A occupancy: 98 percent in the second quarter of 2026, per Savills.
• Zone A prime rent: SAR 2,483 (about $662) per square metre per year in the north-west zone, up 6 percent year on year and 2 percent on the quarter.
• New Grade A from late 2026: more than 570,000 sq m scheduled, including Diriyah Gate, Prime Business Resort and Misk.
• Regional headquarters: more than 700 global companies had set up in Riyadh by early 2026, above the old target of 500.

Alex Knott, Head of Landlord Agency at Savills Middle East, described the same squeeze and the same relief valve.

Demand for high-quality office space remains robust, with new entrants and foreign occupiers continuing to drive leasing activity. Grade A availability is still extremely limited, but the development pipeline expected from late 2026 should gradually expand occupier choice while supporting Riyadh’s long-term position as the Kingdom’s leading commercial centre.

Alex Knott, Head of Landlord Agency, Savills Middle East

Knight Frank’s all-grade stock count sits on a different base. It put Riyadh office inventory at 6.10 million square metres in the second quarter of 2026 and expects announced projects to take that total to about 10.60 million square metres by 2028, a rise of about 74 percent. Al Bustan’s 35,000 sqm is a single campus inside that larger addition, not a market-moving block on its own.

A five-year commercial rent stabilisation policy, noted in the same Savills quarter, is meant to make those headline rents more predictable for occupiers. It does not change the physical fact that late-2026 and 2027 deliveries will give tenants more Grade A addresses to compare with Al Arid.

Typical Floors Start Larger Than Most Enquiries

Savills said 45.5 percent of Riyadh office enquiries in the second quarter of 2026 were for 500 to 1,000 sqm. Al Bustan’s typical floor starts at 1,000 sqm and runs to 2,000 sqm. The park is built for a tenant who wants a full plate, or who will subdivide a shell-and-core floor, not for the smallest suite in the enquiry pile.

That is a deliberate mix. OFC’s own headquarters will take one building. The five remaining offices are sized for regional teams and tech floors that want contiguous space, the same occupiers Williamson called out as multinational tenants. Smaller users still have to be placed, which is why JLL’s tenant-mix brief matters as much as the headline GLA.

Two basement floors of parking are the other practical hook. JLL did not publish the stall ratio, but it named parking as a tenant need the park is built to meet. In a north Riyadh location off Abi Bakr al-Siddiq Road, that is part of the product, not an amenity line.

The Facades Use Fins Against Riyadh Sun

Ayesa’s design period was 2022-2023. The firm used BIM across architecture, structure and MEP, and it treated solar control as a first-order problem. Saudi Arabia’s solar load is high, so each office block and the headquarters got a mix of 230 x 50 mm vertical fins, recessed solid panels, and glass, tuned to orientation. Colour on the fins is meant to tell the buildings apart from the ground.

HOW THE PARK IS BUILT TO BE LEASED

• Shell and core: Unfinished floors so tenants can expand or shrink without a full rebuild, which Ayesa said also cuts cost and waste on the way to handover.
• Fins and panels: 230 x 50 mm vertical fins plus solid panels on upper terraces and ground-floor road facades for shade.
• Landscaping: Shaded outdoor ground between the six offices and the two food pavilions, with parking for users and visitors.
• Rating path: JLL says the campus is on track for LEED Gold; Gold is the band that needs 60 to 79 points for Gold after all prerequisites are met.

The Olayan Group’s Middle East book already spans more than 32 operating companies. Putting the parent on this plot is a way to house that book next to housing it already owns, and to let JLL sell the spare floors against a named occupier rather than against a vacant podium.

Completion is still scheduled for Q2 2027. By then OFC is supposed to be in its building, the two food pavilions are supposed to be trading, and JLL is supposed to have tenants in some or all of the five remaining offices. Those five will come to market as more than 570,000 sq m of other Grade A space is also due from late 2026. The headquarters is the part of the park that does not have to win a beauty contest with Diriyah Gate. The rest of the campus does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Is Olayan Financing Company?

Olayan Financing Company was established in 1969 as the locally managed parent of The Olayan Group’s business in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, Turkey and India. It is majority owner of Olayan Saudi Holding Company, whose operations run across food and beverage, restaurants, health and personal care, information and communications technology, business-to-business, and energy services. Nabeel Al-Amudi is chief executive of OFC, and Lubna S. Olayan chairs the group’s corporate board.

What Does LEED Gold Certification Require?

The U.S. Green Building Council awards LEED at four levels after a project clears every prerequisite and then earns points on optional credits: Certified at 40 to 49 points, Silver at 50 to 59, Gold at 60 to 79, and Platinum at 80 or more. Al Bustan Business Park is on track for Gold and has not been certified yet. GBCI reviews the application; the design team’s own claim is not the certificate.

Where Is Al Arid District in Riyadh?

Al Arid is a northern district of the capital. Al Bustan Business Park is on Abi Bakr al-Siddiq Road in that district. Olayan’s Al-Bustan Village, which shares the name and the owner, is also in north Riyadh and cites King Salman Road and King Fahad Road as the routes that tie the area to the rest of the city and to King Khaled International Airport.

What Is Shell-and-Core Office Space?

Shell-and-core means the landlord delivers the building structure, shared systems and a raw floor plate, and the tenant pays for the interior fit-out. Ayesa used that method at Al Bustan so occupiers can customise, expand or shrink without waiting on a fully finished spec suite. Under LEED, a Core and Shell registration is the path that allows a project to certify before tenant interiors are complete, which is why the park can chase Gold on the base building while the five leased offices are still being fitted.