Irish firm brought down to earth as Chicago Spire fails to get off ground
Artists impression of the Chicago Spire
Monday October 06 2008
The planned tallest building in the western hemisphere has fallen prey to the US property market failure with progress put on hold pending more funds.
The 150-storey Chicago Spire, due to be completed in 2012, is being built by Irish firm Shelbourne Development and was designed by the feted architect, Santiago Calatrava.
A contractor has not yet been hired to build the superstructure, which was due to be above ground by mid-2009. A spokeswoman said building the superstructure of the building "would need to wait until the market improves".
It is currently just beyond foundation stage and she admitted that the funding wasn't there to proceed with building the tower at present.
However, the two-storey penthouse has already been advance-sold at a price of around $40m (€29m) to beanie baby billionaire Ty Warner, with contracts signed last week. The $40m figure was the asking price, but reports speculate that Warner may have bagged a bargain reduction given the property climate.
Prices of $5.7m (€4.1m) are being asked for a 3,800 sq ft property, according to Shelbourne.
One-third, or 1,200 of the skyscraper's units have already been sold, according to the last figures released in June, but the spokeswoman would not give an updated sales figure.
- Risn Burke
