News about Austrians in the USA

Austria's tallest skyscraper to be built in Vienna

An official ceremony marking the beginning of building the DC Tower 1 in Vienna's "Donaucity", which at 220 metres high will be the tallest building in Austria, will begin in several months.

Thomas Jakoubek, the head of developer WED, announced the news yesterday (Weds), adding that delay in the beginning of its construction, originally scheduled for 2007, would make the project cheaper than it would have been, given cheaper credit at present compared to three years ago.

The tower will be the first of two in the project, with the construction of DC Tower 2, which will be only 160 metres high, scheduled to begin in three years after completion of the first one, Jakoubek said.

He added that there would be a restaurant on the floors 57 and 58 at the top of the DC Tower 1, with offices below them and a Spanish Sol Melia four-star hotel on the bottom 15 floors.

The tower will be certified to Green Building Standards, have energy-efficient lifts and will eventually be equipped with solar technology, he said.

Office space will be rented for 22 to 25 Euros a square metre. Bank Austria (BA) board member Helmut Bernkopf said his bank would help provide credit for the project that will cost 300 million Euros.

He noted that occupancy rates were high in Vienna compared to those in most other European cities, which would make credit for construction of the tower a good investment for the bank.

There will be another big construction project in Vienna-Donaucity this year, with construction of an apartment building with 220 apartments near the Austria Center.

Vienna's Millennium Tower at 202 metres is the tallest building in Austria at present.

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828 metres is the tallest building in the world.

Source: Austrian Times