Cnn
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The construction of the highest unoccupied skyscraper in the world can resume next week, almost 10 years after the work stopped, according to Chinese state media.
Golddin finances 117 of 597 meters (1,959 feet), which exceeded the Chinese port city in the north of Tianjin, but which has been unfinished since 2015 in the midst of financial difficulties, should now end in 2027.
At 117 floors, the tower was to be the highest skyscraper in China when it inaugurated in 2008. The arrow structure was built using “mega columns” to protect against strong winds and earthquakes, while its design of “walking stick” was surmounted by a diamond-shaped atrium containing a swimming pool and an observation terrace. He had to contain offices and a five -star hotel on the upper floors, according to the architects P&T Group.
But the project stopped after the 2015 Chinese stock market crash which plunged the future of Goldin Properties Holdings, based in Hong Kong. The real estate developer, whose founder Pan Sutong was once one of the richest businessmen in Hong Kong, has since entered into liquidation.
A new construction permit – which would have listed a contractual value of nearly 569 million yuan ($ 78 million) – suggests that the title of the deceased developer could have been deleted from the name of the building, according to the state media. It is not clear if the plans for the use of the “Supertall” skyscraper remain unchanged. Neither P&T Group nor Bgi Engineering Consultants, the Crown corporation appointed on the license, responded to requests for comments from CNN.
Over the past decade, abandoned skyscrapers juggling Chinese Skylines have become emblematic of the country’s real estate problems. In 2020, its Ministry of Housing and its National Development and Reform Commission published directives prohibiting new towers of more than 500 meters (1,640 feet) in height-a decision apparently referred to, in part, in kidney funding which underpins skyscrapers.
On Monday, the Chinese Greenland group announced that the work also resumed the Tower of Chengdu in Greenland previously blocked in the southwest city of Chengdu, local state media reported. The construction of the skyscraper 468 meters high (1,535 feet) has been suspended since 2023, after the developer belonging to the State encountered financial difficulties, according to Reuters.
The fact that two very publicized projects resume at the same time are a coincidence, said Qiao Shitong, professor of law at the Duke University School of Law and author of two books on Chinese real estate.
“The national government has clearly indicated that it wanted to stabilize the real estate market,” said Qiao for a video call, adding that it encouraged local governments to help “revive” the sector in difficulty. “This signals to the market-(it is) not only of the skyscrapers themselves.”
Although the new financing of the Tianjin tower remains to be disclosed, Qiao thinks that the state has offered investments and a restructuring of the debt to help launch the project.
“(Supertall skyscrapers) are not necessarily the most effective projects and they do not necessarily make profits, but they are indicators,” he said. “By reviving this project and completed, the government hopes at least that it can increase people’s confidence.”
For local officials, the realization of abandoned skyscrapers also concerns “the image of the city”, said Fei Chen, a reader in architecture and urban design at the British University of Liverpool. “They don’t want a project to be unfinished and stays like that, which is a horror for everyone.”
Chen, however, stressed that the resumption of projects in Tianjin and Chengdu is unlikely to announce a return to the “vanity projects” of recent years.
“The government is aware that, although these projects (skyscrapers) have positive effects on the region, they require too many investments and are not financially or lasting on the environment … I think that the general trend in urban development is not changed by the fact that certain projects are taken up. I think it is more the efforts of the local government to improve their city. ”
Despite economic concerns and the tightening of regulations, China continues to dominate global construction of skyscrapers. Of the 133 skyscrapers measuring 200 meters or more completed in the world last year, 91 were in China, according to data from the council of large buildings and urban housing.
Chen said that skyscrapers, although expensive to build, are often used by developers as “magnets” to invest in the surroundings. Golddin Finance 117, for example, was part of a wider development containing villas, commercial buildings and offices, as well as a convention center, an entertainment center and a polo club. The fate of these projects is not explicitly described in the new construction permit, although it describes the development of several “commercial corridors”.
But with sales of ripe goods and occupancy rates of offices in difficulty across China, the economic viability of the project remains in question, said Qiao. “It’s a huge investment,” he added “and I really don’t know who will buy or rent this commercial space.”
During the decade break, Tianjin welcomed another Superall skyscraper – the Tianjin CTF Finance Center, which at 530 meters (1,739 feet) is currently the eighth highest building in the world. Goldin Finance 117 was exceeded at the same time by the Tower of Shanghai twisted and the Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen, which means that it would now become only the largest skyscraper in the country (and the sixth above) in the country at the end.
He will fall to the eighth worldwide if the Tower of Jeddah at the kilometer of Saudi Arabia – on which the construction also recently resumed, after an interruption of several years – and Burj Azizi de Dubai is both completed this decade later.
