THE US:Plans for the tallest apartment building in the western world were launched at a glitzy party for 500 in Chicago last night, with Irish developer Garrett Kelleher insisting the 150-storey twisting tower will get built, though pre-sales of the 1,193 apartments have been postponed until the new year, leading some to speculate about the viability of the project.
The 2,000ft tower, which flew through the planning process and has the full backing of mayor Richard Daly, will cost over $2 billion to build and is due to be finished in 2011. The 48-year-old developer, who made his fortune in Chicago property in the early 1990s, will be funding the initial stages of construction on the 2.2-acre site himself to the tune of $300 million. Anglo Irish Bank funded the $64 million purchase of the site last year. Prices will start at $750,000 for the smallest one-bedroom apartment, rising to $40 million for a "master of the universe" penthouse in the Santiago Calatrava-designed building which will rise a quarter of a mile into the sky. Rival developer Donald Trump has branded it a terrorist target, although he is building a 92-storey hotel and condominium development, Trump International, where sales are reported to be sluggish.
A spokesman for his company, Shelbourne Developments, said it already had more than 3,000 inquiries from all over Europe, while one local said he had optioned an apartment in a nearby building, betting that even a view of the Chicago Spire is a good investment.
Prices are being pitched well above average for downtown Chicago, with Mr Kelleher hoping international buyers will take advantage of the weak dollar to buy up at least half the units in the designer skyscraper. The sales roadshow will take in 14 cities across the world, starting in Dublin and going on to London Moscow, Shanghai and Mumbai.
Sales at the Chicago Spire were to have started this week, but the launch has been pushed back to January because of a delay in processing federal documentation, while gloomy forecasts for the US housing market have cast a shadow over the project.
Dominic Grace of London-based Savills, the estate agents handling the Spire, said European buyers are cautious. "The whole world is spooked," he told the Chicago Tribune. "They're aware of the malaise potentially hanging over the US investment market, but Chicago is steadier than Miami . . . and the euro has a lot of buying power."