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Hope for Gold Tower restart
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| Flowers bask in the sunlight yesterday beneath Gold Tower 42, on Phnom Penh’s Sihanouk Boulevard. |
The project manager of Phnom Penh’s stalled US$300 million Gold Tower 42 development hopes construction on the skyscraper will restart as early as next month.
Three months ago, building work at the tower – which is set to be the capital’s tallest building at 192-metres high and is being developed by Yon Woo Cambodia Co – ground to a halt.
At the time, representatives told media that its builder, South Korea’s Hanil Engineering & Construction was undergoing financial restructuring, causing a delay to the development. Yesterday, leading officials at the skyscraper voiced belief that work could restart as early as January 2011.
Kim Kyo-Won, Hanil E&C’s Gold Tower 42 project director, said: “I cannot confirm exactly when, but we hope to restart as soon as possible …. hopefully in January or February next year.”
A Post reporter who visited the project site late Wednesday found activity at the previously deserted building site, which lies on the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong Boulevard.
This week, lights illuminating each of its 31-floors were being turned on at night.
A staff member at the building, who declined to be named, said that they also believed work would begin in the middle of January.
The hopes have also reached the surrounding area.
A repair man, working on the corner by the tower, reported that word had spread a street-level about a possible January restart.
“I am very happy when I hear news like this because I will do well with my business from construction workers - by selling food and repairing motorbikes,” he said.
When finished, 42-story Gold Tower is set to become the tallest building in the capital at 118.1 metres, dwarfing the 32-storey Canadia Tower.
So far, just 31-storeys of structure stand complete. The tower, which saw ground-breaking begin in 2008, was slated for completion in 2011.
Developers have previously said that 50 to 60 percent of the building had been sold to Cambodian and Korean investors.
Kim Kyo-Won said yesterday that the completion schedule had been put back.
“It will be affected a little bit. Maybe the couple’s months,” he said.
Kim Tae Yun, Yon Woo Cambodia’s assistant manager, declined to tell The Post earlier this week when construction was due to recommence, citing that nothing had changed.
Phnom Penh Post
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