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In what is surely the greatest example of Dubai’s ostentatiousness, the Burj Dubai’s (Dubai Tower) developers say that it will be open for business later this year. The tower, at 818 meters high, already is the world’s tallest human-made structure.
This building, which cost $4.1 billion to construct, will house both offices and residential space. Even the office space will command an insanely high prices, at around US$43,000 per square meter. Even its elevators are the fastest in the world — at 60 kilometers per hour.
Emaar had previously said that the building would open in September, but The Associated Press noted today: “…that now appears in doubt, as parts of its facade still appear incomplete.”
The news service adds:
Emaar’s profits and share price have taken a beating from falling property prices in Dubai and elsewhere.
The company’s stock price fell nearly 6 percent to finish at 2.28 dirhams (62 cents) on the Dubai Financial Market following reports of a possible delay to its signature project Monday.
Emaar’s continued building is going despite the global economic crisis, which has been significantly felt in boomtown Dubai.
Even today, in a related story in The Wall Street Journal, another large real estate firm, Deyaar Development, justed posted a 69 percent decline in its second-quarter profits.
Reports the Journal:
Deyaar’s net profit for the period fell to 75.4 million U.A.E. dirhams ($20.5 million), the company said in a statement on the Dubai Financial Market. Net profit in the second quarter of 2008 had totaled 246.9 million dirhams, more than double than in the second quarter of 2007.
