A subsidiary of Dubai World turned over ownership of New York’s famed Knickerbocker building to lenders this week, after defaulting on mortgage payments.

Istithmar World Capital, an investment arm of state-controlled Dubai World, paid $300 million for the Times Square icon in 2006. The company said it wanted to turn the office building into a luxury hotel.

Instead, Denmark-based Danske Bank assumed control of property this week and hired Jones Lang Lasalle to sell it. Danske took over the mortgage in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Reuters reports.

Shanghai Financial Center

Despite the economic downturn, 2010 will see more skyscrapers completed around the world than in any single year in history, according to the organization that tracks the industry.

More than 100 buildings of 200 meters or taller are due to finish this year, which is more than the total already in existence in New York and Hong Kong combined, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat says.

“It is not just height, but the sheer volume of high-rise buildings set to be completed in 2010 that is astonishing,” the organization reports.

In many ways, the flurry of activity in 2010 is simply a fluke, the delayed residue of the go-go years, when these projects were financed. In 2009, the number of completed skyscrapers fell by 28 percent from 2008, thanks, in large part, to the unprecedented number of skyscrapers built in the United Arab Emirates in 2008.

Residential rental rates in Dubai dropped 41 percent in the last year, according to new report from CB Richard Ellis. Office leasing rates fell 57 percent from the previous, as the Emirates’ building boom flooded the market with new product.

The report is ominous news for investors, who might have hoped that rents would hold steady until valuations began to increase again. Prices in Dubai fell 47 percent in 2009, according to a recent report from Knight Frank.

An IPJ Report post on the world’s tallest building has been named a finalist in Primelocation.com’s 2009 Blog Awards Competition.

“How Tall is the World’s Tallest Building” is one of five nominees in the Best Blog Post Category. The report examined the mystery behind the actual height of the Burj Dubai, now known as the Burj Khalifa.

Stabilization is a big word in Dubai these days. Property investors aren’t looking for fireworks, just some sign of predictability after prices soared for three years, only to drop by more than 40 percent in 2009.

With that in mind, the latest Colliers International Dubai House Index seems like good news for the industry. Property prices in the fourth quarter rose a miserly 1 percent and the number of transactions dropped 15 percent from the previous quarter, however the slight uptick in prices represented the second quarter in a row in positive territory.

Headlines from the world of property:

Dubai: Older Offices Have a Vacant Look

New buildings are gobbling up tenants, leaving older buildings to struggle. From the National.

New York: Priciest Condo Takes a Tumble

Price of condo in Philippe Starck building drops $7 million. From Curbed.

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.”

Burj Dubai is officially set to open on Jan. 4, with as much hoopla as Dubai can muster for the world’s tallest man-made structure. Beyond fireworks and riveting speeches, the ceremony should also answer one of the endearing mysteries surrounding construction of the massive structure—exactly how tall is it?

There’s no question it is the world’s tallest building, passing the Taipei 101. In fact, it is the tallest free-standing structure in the world, bypassing various communication towers. Burj will also hold titles for the most stories, highest open observation deck and tallest elevator, among other superlatives.

Dubai’s troubles get all the attention, but Abu Dhabi and Qatar investment funds are still making headlines these days.

On Monday, Abu Dhabi invested $10 billion to help save Nakheel, Dubai’s troubled developer. But that’s only the latest in a long line of deals for Dubai’s less-flashy sister Emirates, which has continued to fund projects through the downturn, even when Dubai shut down its money spigot.

Dubai

Prices in Dubai fell 47 percent in the last year, the largest drop reported in the latest Knight Frank Global House Price Index.

Overall, Knight Frank’s news was fairly upbeat, with 68 percent of the countries reporting upticks in the third quarter. However 57 percent of the countries were still lower than a year ago, led by Dubai, Bulgaria (down 28 percent) and Thailand (down 18.4 percent).

The report spotlights the rollercoaster in Asia, where Singapore is down 14.5 percent from a year ago, but posted a 15.2 percent jump in the quarter. Hong Kong prices are up 5.6 percent from a year ago.