Tall towers are all the rage in the Middle East, and this is Qatar’s. It will be – unless superseded between now and completion – the second tallest in the region.

It should be ready by 2011, have 110 storeys and be 550m in height. It will be a mix of offices, residential apartments – including exclusive penthouses – and a hotel. Apartments go on sale from the second half of next year.

At the moment the foundations are being laid, so building proper hasn’t started. Our doubts about the finish date were gently dismissed; building the tower will be quick we were told.

The public observation deck will be on the 92^nd floor, which will also house a restaurant and an exclusive cigar club. A common problem with tall towers in this region is they don’t have enough elevators, but Qatari Diar, the developer, said this will have 32, some for the exclusive use of penthouse owners.

The convention centre next to the tower is also being redeveloped, and a monorail built to help with transportation.

How much, AME Info wanted to know? ‘A lot,’ said Farid Ben Dris, its chief development officer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Cityscape. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.