Mexico City, already home to Latin America's tallest building, will see that title move a few blocks away to a new skyscraper set to be completed as the nation celebrates its bicentennial, officials said on Monday.
Crews will break ground on the 300m Torre Bicentenario later this year and building is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2010, the year Mexico celebrates 200 years since the start of its battle for independence from Spain, the Mexico City government said.
The privately funded, 85-floor collection of offices, restaurants and a convention center will cost an estimated US$600 million.
It will surpass Reforma Avenue's Torre Mayor, which was inaugurated in 2003 as Latin America's tallest building at 225m and 55 floors.
The Torre Bicentenario will be located just down the road from Torre Mayor, in Mexico City's exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.
Much of Mexico City is built on a silty, former lake bed, and officials have long shied away from tall buildings, especially after the devastating 1985 earthquake, which killed thousands.
But a recent real estate boom and better building codes have sparked a construction frenzy, and skyscrapers are rising across the capital.
The Mexican buildings, however, are still shorter than the world's tallest. Developers of a 512m skyscraper still under construction in Dubai claimed that it has become the world's tallest building, surpassing Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 508m since 2004.
The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of next year and its planned final height has been kept secret.
Previous skyscraper record-holders include New York's Empire State Building at 381; Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 421; Chicago's Sears Tower at 442; and Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 452m.
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