PROPERTY TALK (By S.C. CHEAH)

THE guest list at the Kuala Lumpur launch of The Chicago Spire at the Mandarin Oriental on April 2 comprised the who’s who in Malaysia, with members of the royal family, corporate bigwigs and politicians eager to know more about the world’s tallest exclusively-residential building.

Selling agents Savills Rahim & Co which hosted the launch closed a few sales that day. “We’re confident of having five buyers, possibly more soon. This (number) is quite big to be sold in KL for such a high-end property,” said Savills Rahim & Co chairman Datuk Abdul Rahim Rahman.

Indeed, at a lofty height of 150 floors and soaring 2,000 ft (609.6m), The Chicago Spire is higher than the current world’s tallest building, the Taipeh 101. It is also taller than the Petronas Twin Towers, at one time the tallest buildings in the world. The Burj Dubai at 2,500 ft currently under construction will take the crown. Penang Hill is 2,723ft above sea level.

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Did you guys catch the full page advert on the Chicago Spire last Saturday? I remember seeing the exact same advert (with different contact details of course) in an in-flight magazine enroute from Zurich back to London; and thought what a peculiar building it was…it looks pretty much like a screw! So it caught me by surprise when I saw the full-page ad being splashed in our local The Star. I started to wonder if Malaysians do have the power to buy into this kinda development, which starts at about USD750,000 (RM2.391million) for the smallest studio unit all the way to USD40million for the penthouse with totals up to 1200 condo units. They have also added a guaranteed 7.5% returns for the first two years.

Anyway, seeing this being launched in KL, this could signal two things: either they have done enough research to know that there are a lot of Malaysians here who are loaded with cash who would invest, or they just had no choice to launch it overseas since the credit crunch crisis over at the Stateside. The Chicago Spire is marketed locally by Rahim-Co Savills.

31 Mar 2008: Offshore: Chicago Spire takes on the world (The Edge)

Singapore investors were among the first few hundred given the chance to cherry pick apartments in the soon-to-be-tallest skyscraper in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2,000ft-high Chicago Spire in the US. Recently, more than 800 people turned up for the private launch on a Friday evening, followed by a weekend property exhibition of The Chicago Spire.

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