Bahrain tenders 25-year multi-storey industrial complex in Salman Industrial City

Summary

• Bahrain opened bidding to lease land for a multi-storey industrial complex in Salman Industrial City.
• The winner designs, builds, finances, operates and maintains the facilities for 25 years.
• Minimum land rent is set at 1 Bahraini dinar per square metre annually.

The latest

Bahrain's Ministry of Industry and Commerce has put out to tender the lease of a land plot in Salman Industrial City for a multi-storey industrial complex, according to the tender notice. The winning bidder takes on design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance for 25 years. Bids close on 23 December 2026.

Details

• The structure: According to the tender notice, the award is a land lease rather than a construction contract alone. The successful bidder carries the full package — design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the facilities — across a 25-year term, placing the capital burden on the private developer rather than the ministry.
• The rent: The minimum land rental rate has been set at 1 Bahraini dinar per square metre per year, per the notice. As a floor rather than a fixed price, it leaves the final rate to be determined through competitive bidding, with the low threshold effectively functioning as an incentive to attract developers.
• The timeline: The tender was published on 27 September 2026. Tender documents are available for purchase until 6 December, bids are due on 23 December 2026, and opening is scheduled for the following day, 24 December — a tight turnaround between submission and the first reading of offers.
• The asset type: The notice specifies a multi-storey industrial complex, a vertical format that raises usable industrial floor space on a single footprint. That design choice points to land efficiency as a driver, though the notice does not state the rationale.
• Not disclosed: The tender notice did not provide the land area, the estimated development value, the intended industrial uses, or construction milestones. Those omissions leave the scale of the project — and the capital a bidder would need to commit over the 25-year term — undefined at the bidding stage.
• The authority: The Ministry of Industry and Commerce is the issuing body, making this a state-led land allocation in an existing industrial zone rather than a greenfield development announcement. The ministry did not name the evaluation criteria that will decide the award.
• The reporting: ZAWYA Projects published the tender on 29 September 2026, in a report written by Deva Palanisamy and edited by Anoop Menon, drawing on the official tender notice.

Background

Salman Industrial City is one of Bahrain's designated industrial zones, where the state leases serviced land to manufacturers and developers. Long-term lease tenders of this kind transfer construction and operating risk to private operators while the government retains ownership of the land.

Between the lines

The terms describe a build-operate model: a 25-year term, a rent floor of 1 dinar per square metre per year, and the developer financing the project. Read together with the absence of a disclosed development value or land area, the design suggests the ministry is inviting the market to price the project rather than sizing it in advance.

What's next

Watch the 6 December cut-off for purchasing tender documents, the 23 December bid deadline and the 24 December opening, when the number of bidders and the rental rates offered above the 1-dinar floor become visible.

Source: ZAWYA Projects