Skyscrapers
for Incheon

Incheon City, Portman consortium sign agreement to build 151-story twin buildings in Songdo; Hyundai, Samsung part of the consortium

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. said it has signed an agreement to participate in the construction of 151-story twin buildings in Songdo City, tentatively named, "Incheon Tower"as part of the consortium led by the Portman Holdings of the United States.
Incheon City and the Portman consortium signed an agreement to build the structures, the second highest in the world next to the Burj Dubai, being built in the United Arab Emirates by Samsung Construction.
The agreement was signed by Incheon Mayor Ahn Sang-soo, and Jack Portman, vice chairman of Portman Holdings, a real estate developer in the United States, at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul on July 11 with some 100 dignitaries attending including HDEC President Lee Jong-soo and Samsung Construction President Lee Sang-dae.
The U.S. company and Incheon City signed an MOU in Atlanta, Georgia, in February to develop the Nos. 6&8 areas of the Incheon Free Economic Zone, totaling some 1.92 million pyeong of space with the investment amounting to $11 billion.
Both HDEC and Samsung Construction joined the consortium.
The consortium will begin the huge project with reclamation work on the site and launch the construction of the twin buildings tentatively scheduled at the end of 2007 for completion targeted in 2012. The twin tower will be 640 meters tall with 151 stories, the second highest in the world, which will be a landmark when completed.
The buildings will have rooms for hotel, business offices, commercial outlets, residential quarters, and leisure facilities so that they will be the center of an international town in Songdo City, along with commercial, residential, cultural and leisure facilities to give Songdo a cosmopolitan look.
Hyundai officials said the twin tower will be built in the 6 and 8 districts of the IFEZ will surely be a landmark in the new international city that is Songdo. HDEC was able to join the Portman consortium with the recognition of its international construction expertise and its experiences in the domestic construction sector as a leading builder in the country.
The agreement signed between Incheon City and the Portman consortium for the mammoth development project provides for a feasibility study of the project, especially the twin tower project to be completed within a 10-month period after the signing of the basic agreement. They will sign an agreement for development, an implementation contract, and a land supply contract to put the project on the right tract. In the meantime, Portman Holdings set up in 1953 is affiliated with the Portman Group based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is in charge of real estate development and architectural design through its affiliate Portman and Associates. The group also owns the largest discount store in the world, America's Mart with a total space of 120,000 pyeong, in addition to other real estate assets worth $1.5 billion.
In the meantime, Hyundai achieved orders worth $202.5 million in the Middle East. The leading Korean builder won the order for the Jebel Ali container wharf 1st stage project, which is aimed at expanding the container handling capacity of Dubai. The Jebel Ali port can handle only containers with 1,000 TEU capacity and the first stage project involves the work on the support areas of the port and its entrance at the cost of $169.1 million. The company also landed a contract to build an office building and annexes at the cost of $34.5 million in 17 months with the construction set to begin in October of this year.
Hyundai officials said the company was able to secure these orders due to its experiences of having carried out projects in the countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, among others, on a successful note, which won recognition from them. Especially, Hyundai has been working on the first stage project of the Jebel Ali harbor container terminal expansion project, which also won the recognition from those countries for its high technology level and vast experiences in the Middle East construction market. The company has put itself in a good position to win the second stage project of the Jebel Ali harbor expansion work.
The construction giant expects to win overseas project orders totaling $2.73 billion this year, up from $2.52 billion last year, including harbor and bridge construction projects in Kuwait, UAE and India. In addition to oil, gas, power generation plants and transformer stations from countries like Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya. nw

(left) HDEC President Lee Jong-soo, (above) A drawing of the twin highrise buildings 151 stories tall to be built in Songdo City in the Incheon Free Economic Zone by the Portman consortium, which includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co.