Country's tallest building opens in December after 'minor jolts'
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Mushir Ahmed
The country's tallest building opens in December this year after a minor earthquake last year almost robbed its glory and tore apart its original opening plan, an official said Thursday.
At a height of 350 feet and 37 floors, the City Center at Motijheel will be the largest commercial building in the country, surpassing 32-floor Bangladesh Bank Building, but its owners are counting the cost of a minor tremor in March 2008.
The quake measured around four degree in the Richter scale left cracks in the sidewalls of the building --- which is not part of the structure --- but it created panic among its tenants and was overplayed by an army of satellite televisions.
Although the first tenants, StanChart, HSBC and the Grameenphone, hired their own experts to check the damages, with one of them even flying in structural engineer from Mumbai, they took months to re-open their offices.
Project chief K.M Nurul Islam said they have now overcome "all the difficulties" and the building would now open up in December this year, some 18 months after its original opening date and five years after the start of construction.
"We are now giving final touches to the building. Some 35 floors have already been completed. We have also started interior works to make the building ready by end of this year," he said.
Islam admitted that the quake caused "unnecessary panic" among the people and is largely to blame for initial poor response from the floor buyers.
"Our building can resist a quake measuring eight degree in the Richter scale. But some televisions ignored the facts and deliberately overplayed the cracks in the sidewalls," he said.
Belhasa Accom, a Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates joint venture, is constructing the building on a 21-katha land leased by Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) in exchange for 10 floors to the city authorities.
The owners have so far sold out 90 per cent of its floor space, but initially the company had to settle for Tk4000 for per square feet, as the buyers took their time to make long-term investment.
"At the moment the response is very good. We are selling space at more than Tk10,000 per square feet, which should have been the natural floor price at Motijheel. We have set aside three floors for an asking price of Tk12,000," he said.
Banks, insurance companies and Dhaka Stock Exchange brokerage firms bought the bulk of the floors, he said, adding three other floors have been kept aside for conference room, meeting halls and cafeteria.
Officials said total cost of the building would cross Tk1.40 billion, making it the costliest in Bangladesh, and the company expects to make about Tk1.80 billion by selling all its floors.
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) will use seven of its floors for car parking, aimed at lessening jams in the busiest commercial center of the country. It would use three other floors for office and rents.
The country's tallest building opens in December this year after a minor earthquake last year almost robbed its glory and tore apart its original opening plan, an official said Thursday.
At a height of 350 feet and 37 floors, the City Center at Motijheel will be the largest commercial building in the country, surpassing 32-floor Bangladesh Bank Building, but its owners are counting the cost of a minor tremor in March 2008.
The quake measured around four degree in the Richter scale left cracks in the sidewalls of the building --- which is not part of the structure --- but it created panic among its tenants and was overplayed by an army of satellite televisions.
Although the first tenants, StanChart, HSBC and the Grameenphone, hired their own experts to check the damages, with one of them even flying in structural engineer from Mumbai, they took months to re-open their offices.
Project chief K.M Nurul Islam said they have now overcome "all the difficulties" and the building would now open up in December this year, some 18 months after its original opening date and five years after the start of construction.
"We are now giving final touches to the building. Some 35 floors have already been completed. We have also started interior works to make the building ready by end of this year," he said.
Islam admitted that the quake caused "unnecessary panic" among the people and is largely to blame for initial poor response from the floor buyers.
"Our building can resist a quake measuring eight degree in the Richter scale. But some televisions ignored the facts and deliberately overplayed the cracks in the sidewalls," he said.
Belhasa Accom, a Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates joint venture, is constructing the building on a 21-katha land leased by Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) in exchange for 10 floors to the city authorities.
The owners have so far sold out 90 per cent of its floor space, but initially the company had to settle for Tk4000 for per square feet, as the buyers took their time to make long-term investment.
"At the moment the response is very good. We are selling space at more than Tk10,000 per square feet, which should have been the natural floor price at Motijheel. We have set aside three floors for an asking price of Tk12,000," he said.
Banks, insurance companies and Dhaka Stock Exchange brokerage firms bought the bulk of the floors, he said, adding three other floors have been kept aside for conference room, meeting halls and cafeteria.
Officials said total cost of the building would cross Tk1.40 billion, making it the costliest in Bangladesh, and the company expects to make about Tk1.80 billion by selling all its floors.
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) will use seven of its floors for car parking, aimed at lessening jams in the busiest commercial center of the country. It would use three other floors for office and rents.