Eight contractors in for tallest commercial tower in Dubai

20 May 2015

The Burj 2020 will be built in the Jumeirah Lake Towers area

  • Leading regional and international contractors approached for world’s tallest commercial tower
  • The Burj 2020 project is still in the early stages
  • World’s tallest commercial tower is the 541-metre One World Trade Centre in New York

At least eight contracting companies have been approached by Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC) for the contract to build the world’s tallest commercial tower in the Jumeirah Lake Towers area of Dubai.

Leading local and international firms have been approached for the project, which is understood to still be in the design stage. These include:

The tower is planned to be taller than the 541-metre One World Trade Centre tower in New York, which is currently the world’s tallest commercial tower. The Burj 2020 has been designed as a steel-frame structure, meaning that it can be built more quickly than a traditional concrete structure.

The tower will also offer large, open floors that property consultants say will be attractive to large multinational tenants that find it difficult to find large volumes of good-quality office space in one building due to many office buildings having multiple owners and landlords.

According to sources close to the project the tower will be surrounded by five or six other towers that will make up the Burj 2020 district in the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) area. It is understood that these towers could be up to 350m tall.

US-based Turner Construction International was appointed as the project manager for the development in 2014. The designer is understood to be US-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. DMCC named the tower Burj 2020 in December 2013, following Dubai’s Expo 2020 win in late 2013.

DMCC is developing another tower in the JLT area. In 2013 Canada’s Brookfield Multiplex was selected as the design and build contractor for One JLT tower.

It involves the design and build of a 12-storey commercial building with a ground floor, two levels of podium parking and a basement. The contractor is also responsible for fitting out five levels of Grade A office space.

There are currently 65 mixed-use commercial and residential towers and over 220 retail outlets in operation within Dubai’s most popular community Jumeirah Lakes Towers. The tallest, which was developed by DMCC, is the Almas tower. The 363m tower was built by a joint venture of Japan’s Taisei Corporation and ACC. It opened in 2009.

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