How many storeys will the $500mil Keangnam hotel have?

17:10' 03/08/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The $500mil hotel, a work to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long’s establishment, has not been kicked off yet because it remains unclear how many storeys the hotel can have. Hanoi to have one more five-star hotel Cau Giay District in Hanoi South Korea’s Keangnam group should have started the construction of the five-star hotel in the Cau Giay new urban area in Hanoi on July 29 (on the same day, the ground breaking ceremony for the $65mil five-star hotel Crown Plaza on Le Duc Tho Road in Tu Liem district took place). Keangnam group was one of the two best candidates for the project to build the $500mil five-star hotel on X2 position on Pham Hung Road (near the National Convention Centre). The licence was finally granted to Japan’s Riviera. Hanoi authorities, wanting to keep both potential investors, decided to allocate another land plot to Keangnam to develop the five-star hotel on the E6 land plot in Cau Giay new urban area. Several months ago, when granting the licence to develop the five-star hotel, Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Quoc Trieu asked the investor to implement the project soon. However, the project could not be kicked off as soon as previously planned as state management authorities still have not said how many storeys the hotel could have. According to Ha Jong Seuk, Chief Representative of Keangnam in Vietnam, as the management authorities did not show the land site map for the project, Keangnam had to build different construction designs to be submitted to the Ministry of Construction and Hanoi authorities for approval. Initially, Keangnam suggested an 80-storey hotel, but the Hanoi People’s Committee said that the buildings in the complex must be less than 60 storeys. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Construction said that the construction of high-rise buildings should be encouraged in the new urban areas. Deputy Minister of Construction Tran Ngoc Chinh said that the urbanisation pace in Hanoi had been quickening, construction demand, increasing, while the land fund was limited. The five-star hotel complex is expected to be located in the Cau Giay new urban area, and at the intersections of many key transport routes; therefore, a complex with modern architecture and with the height of 47-70 storeys would be fine. Currently, the Hanoi People’s Committee is still consulting relevant ministries and branches and has not made a final decision on the number of storeys of the complex. And for the time being, the project still cannot be kicked off. (Source: DTCK, Viet Nam Net)