Dubai opened the world’s tallest tower on Monday. The 828-metre-tall skyscraper will be renamed Burj Khalifa, to honour Abu Dhabi President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who pumped billions of dollars into Dubai last year, as it struggled from its enormous debt.
The US$1.5 billion Burj Dubai, which means “Dubai Tower” in Arabic, is home to office spaces, luxury apartments and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani. The tower also plans to have the world’s highest mosque at the 158th floor and a swimming pool at the 76th floor.
Thousands of people were present at the opening ceremony, where it was revealed that its true height is 2,717 feet, making it more than a thousand feet higher than Taipei 101, which has been the world’s tallest skyscraper since 2004.
The tower’s exact number of floors is not yet determined but Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of Burj Dubai’s developer, Emaar Properties, said yesterday it has more than 200 floors, but later changed his statement to say that it’s more than 165 inhabitable floors, given its tapered top.
Its developers said they are confident about the safety of the tower, which is twice the height of the New York Empire State Building.
Greg Sang, Emaar’s director of projects, said the tower has “refuge floors” at 25 to 30 storey intervals and had a reinforced concrete structure, making it stronger compared to steel-framed skyscrapers.
“A plane won’t be able to slice through the Burj like it did through the steel columns of the World Trade Centre,” he said.
Emaar Property, which is partly owned by Dubai government, has investments ranging from Dubai’s man-made islands and seaports to the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, as well as luxury retailer Barney’s New York. It said the tower is about 90 percent sold.
During the peak, several apartments in the building were sold for more than US$1,900 per square foot (psf). It can now be sold at less than half of the price, said Heather Wipperman Amiji, chief executive of Dubai property consultancy, Investment Boutique.
He said that some buyers may end up struggling to find tenants at that rate, once the expected high service charges for the tower are factored in.
The tower is the centrepiece of a 500-acre development that officials have projected will become the new central commercial and residential district of Dubai. It is also surrounded by the Middle East’s largest shopping mall and a number of smaller but new skyscrapers.