Gold tower 42 stops at 31

Photo by: Will Baxter
Gold tower 42 stands unfinished with 31 floors completed after developers confirmed Monday construction had temporarily halted on Phnom Penh's largest skyscraper.

via CAAI

Monday, 13 September 2010 20:46 Soeun Say

CONSTRUCTION at Phnom Penh’s Gold Tower 42 has been temporarily suspended, with developers unable to say when work will restart on the much-anticipated US$240-

million skyscraper.

When finished, Gold Tower was set to become the tallest building in the capital at 192 metres, dwarfing the 32-storey Canadia Tower at 118.1 metres. But so far, just 31 storeys of structure, being built on the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong boulevards, stand complete.

“It is true that we have, since the beginning of this month, temporarily put it on hold,” Kim-KW, a South Korean project director at developer Yon Woo Cambodia Co, said yesterday.

“We will continue progress again, but at the moment we don’t know when.”

Kim-KW refused to reveal the reason for the decision. But an administrator, who asked not to be named, said: “It is just a temporary suspension. We see that the economic situation is not getting better.”

A reporter visited the site yesterday and found it deserted, save for a handful of security guards.

Tower construction started in 2008 and was scheduled for completion in 2011.

Developers, dogged by unsubstantiated rumours last year that construction had halted and left buyers in limbo, previously said that up to 60 percent of the building had been sold.

Analysts yesterday expressed mixed reactions to the latest news to hit the sector, following the announcement of a 555-metre tall tower for the capital and a report that the Posco-backed Star River complex was on hold.

The president of the National Valuers’ Association of Cambodia, Sung Bonna, said large construction projects could face difficulties because demand for office and residential space was limited. He said that developers could have problems if they used funding from pre-sold units to finance building.

But Daniel Parkes, Cambodia country manager of real estate giant CB Richard Ellis, emphasised that “we have invested in our business here, and we are confident that Cambodia’s economy will improve. We look forward to construction resuming”.

Nun Pheany, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction, said they would visit the Gold Tower site.