Real Insight. Real Estate.

Posts Tagged ‘construction’

The Burj Khalifa, known for much of its (seemingly decade long) construction period as the Burj Dubai, opened January 4th 2010 to much fanfare and fireworks, which were televised around the globe. It is the tallest tower the world has ever seen. It was supposed to serve as a metaphor for the grandiose and burgeoning man-made (and oil-financed) structures of the city of Dubai itself….a “Mecca” not just for the Arab world, but rather to for the industrialized world as well. It was supposed to attract tourists, all by itself, to a region that was lacking them desperately. But the name change it recently underwent at its grand opening turned out to be a metaphor for something else… Read the rest of this entry »

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Developers of ground-up construction in today’s economic climate are piling up horror stories of projects they are working on that have stopped dead in their tracks due to short falls in financing. In some instances, developers have had to ask their contractors to immediately halt progress on a site just after laying the foundation for a new building.

However, these developers need not worry as they can still secure financing for completion of their projects. All they need to do is go to their local or regional bank and prove to the lender that they are in such great shape that they don’t require any capital whatsoever. The bank will then be happy to let them borrow. Yes, I realize that this makes no sense at all–it’s a classic Catch-22. But such is the current availability of financing for ground-up construction.
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With an increasing number of building projects stalling out due to limited availability of debt financing, we are bound to see some development projects take much longer than expected. If you’re a developer working on a project that seems like it will never finish because you simply can’t get sufficient access to credit, have a look at this list of the 10 Longest Construction Projects. Maybe it will make you feel better. Of course, there’s also a chance it may make you feel worse…

#10 – The Parthenon (Greece)
Duration: 17 years

#9 – The Great Pyramid at Giza (Egypt)
Duration: 20 years

#8 – Sacsayhuman (Peru)
Duration: 63 years

#7 – York Minster Cathedral (U.K.)
Duration: 252 years

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