RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA-The design for the combination $450 million Hilton hotel and apartment complex here has been released by architect Chicago-based Goettsch Partners. The project, with 650 hotel tower and 250-unit apartment building, should be completed in 2013.

Goettsch is designing the property for the General Organization for Social Insurance, an agency of the country. Hilton will run the hotel, which will feature a 41,000-square-foot ballroom, the largest in the country. The apartments will be serviced as hotel rooms, with similar amenities.

The towers converge around a central elevator core, with multiple, rotating two-level atriums. The complex will also include a variety of food and beverage outlets, two outdoor lounges and other fitness facilities. The property is planned for between the five-million-square-foot Granada Center shopping center and Granada Business Park.

This project helps Saudi Arabia catch up with increased development as other Middle East hotel markets like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, though hospitality researchers say these countries’ pipelines are just about empty. James Goettsch, partner at the firm, tells GlobeSt.com. that there was more of a need for the extravagant hotel and multifamily projects in those countries. “They had to develop a critical mass to make it attractive for people to be there,” Goettsch says. “Saudi, they’re building for the future, there’s still a potential for future projects. China and India, they had an instant need, but in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, they really did build up cities, and it seems to have worked.”