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In a lavish opening ceremony in Dubai, the tallest man-made structure in the world was officially redubbed the Burj Khalifa, in honor of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
On one level, this certainly represents an amount of sucking up, a token of appreciation for Abu Dhabi’s willingness to bail out Dubai with billions to pay off debts. “The world’s tallest point should be associated with big names,” Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum told the crowd at the opening ceremony, characterizing the naming “a humble public display of federal solidarity.”
The grand opening celebration was as extravagant as expected (see video below), with 10,000 fireworks, dancers, skydivers and an hour-long light show. However, it was considered notably down-scale for Dubai standards, at least in contrast to the lavish opening for the Atlantis a few months ago, which included a bevy of Hollywood stars ranging from Denzel Washington to Kylie Minogue. That event was criticized as insensitive in tough financial times, a message which might have sunk in to Dubai’s power brokers.
Project developer Emaar says it will start delivering apartments in Burj Khalifa in the next two months. The occupancy rate at Burj Dubai may reach 75 percent this year, with office leasing the biggest challenge for investors, Shuaa Capital PSC analyst Roy Cherry told Bloomberg News.
The tower is considered the most expensive in the region, with apartments costing 10,000 dirhams ($2,700) a square foot at the peak of the market in 2008. But most of the units sold out early and many were already flipped before the down turn, which has seen prices in many project drop by 50 percent.
The Burj Khalifa “may still run at a premium to the rest of the market, but I’d be surprised if there were no defaults and if vacancy rates didn’t creep up” since a large proportion of the developer’s sales were financed through mortgages, Saud Masud, a Dubai-based analyst at UBS AG, told Bloomberg.
For the record, the tower is officially 828 meters tall (2,716 feet), finally answering one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the building.
Here’s video of the opening ceremony:
And more video:
