worlds next tallest tower revealed

Money to spare.



DEVELOPERS in Dubai have announced plans to build a tower 1km high - beating the booming city state's own world record.

With the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, nearing completion, Dubai World president Sultan Ahmed bin Sulaim said the new tower would be "one of a kind".

The tower, which will take more than a decade to complete, will be the centerpiece of a sprawling development state-owned builder Nakheel plans to create in the rapidly growing "New Dubai" section of the city.

Foundation work has already begun on the tower, Nakheel Chief Executive Chris O'Donnell told FoxNews.

The tower will be located between two of the city's artificial palm-shaped islands, which Nakheel also built.

The project will include a manmade inland harbor and 40 additional towers up to 90 floors high.

About 150 elevators will carry employees and workers to the Nakheel Tower's more than 200 floors, the company said.

The building will be composed of four separate towers joined at various levels and centered on an open atrium.

"It does show a lot of confidence in this environment of worldwide credit problems and a souring global economy," Standard Chartered Bank's Dubai-based regional head of research Marios Maratheftis said.

Dubai is already home to the world's tallest building, even if it remains unfinished.

The Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower in Arabic, is being built by Nakheel's chief competitor, Emaar Properties.

Emaar has kept the final height of the silvery steel-and-glass tower a closely guarded secret, saying only that it stood at a "new record height" of 2257 feet at the start of last month.

It's due to be finished next September.

The final height of Nakheel's proposed tower is likewise a secret, as is the price tag. The company would only say it will be more than 3281 feet tall - or the height of more than three of New York's Chrysler Buildings stacked end-to-end.

With AFP