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No expense spared as Dubai opens Burj tower
But will the world’s tallest skyscraper be a white elephant a month after the emirate’s economic crash?
As Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum opens the world's tallest building today, the developer of the Burj Dubai tower is at pains to ensure the $4.1bn 'superscraper' and its surrounding $20 billion development are not overshadowed by the fall-out from the emirate's spectacular economic crash in November.
No expense will be spared at tonight's opening ceremony, which will include 10,000 fireworks and also marks Sheikh Mohammed's four-year anniversary as Dubai's ruler.
At 818 metres, the Burj Dubai surpasses its nearest inhabited rival, Taiwan's Taipei 101, by more than 300 metres. The steel-ribbed, glass-clad structure has 169 floors and more than 50 lifts. It also boasts the world's highest swimming pool - on the 76th floor - and the most elevated place of worship with plans for a mosque on the 158th floor.
Engineers have had to overcome significant challenges posed by the building's unprecedented height and 500,0000 tonne weight. The foundations, made of 192 concrete piles plunged 150ft into the sandstone bedrock, have already sunk 2.4in. Meanwhile, a system of airlocks has been installed to slow the cool air falling from the top of the tower to the bottom and prevent it from developing into a gale.
Despite Dubai being pitched into crisis when one of its largest government-owned conglomerates, Dubai World, admitted it couldn't pay its debts, and despite a 50 per cent fall in the emirate's property market, Emaar Properties claims that almost all of the Burj's 1,044 residential flats, designed by Giorgio Armani, have been sold. However, it is being reported that none of the 28,000 sq m of office space has been occupied yet.
In early December, oil-rich Abu Dhabi threw Dubai World a $10bn lifeline to allow the conglomerate to pay its immediate debts and prop itself up until the end of April. But analysts believe recovery will be slow and that the emirate will not fully recover in the medium-term.
As for the Burj, its critics dismiss it as a towering folly from a bygone era. As one local banker put it, "It's the last blast of the Noughties in a city that got too big for its dishdasha [robes]." ·
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It will not be as, 90 % has already been sold to date. What is more. The cash is not from outside. It comes from another brotherly Sheikh Nahyan and he is the ruler of Abu Dhabi 160 kms off Dubai. I care not if the name was changed. Was not the Pullman's carts named after the smart move by the buyer? What is in the name? Well even the graves are marked with stones or gold plates depending on what prices can you pay for the number plate of the car. I thank you
Firozali A Mulla