If there is no demand for all that real estate, they're doomed. They're looking for a return on their investments... you don't spend a billion on one tower to have it sit half-empty for the next 10 years.

it will be good times when those buildings are bombed by terrorists...

That's a high failure rate

As far as I understand it most, if not all residential was sold off-plan. Couple of big chunks are hotel (mainly the Armani hotel). Commercial I'm not so sure about, which i'm sure must be a big chunk. Commercial space is in huge oversupply right now so might take time to fill. Remember reading a report it took 10+ years to fill up the Empire state, although not sure how valid a comparison that is, given the variables such as state of the economy, how construction was financed etc. What I can safely say is that Emaar have weathered the financial storm better than all other developers here. That ain't saying much though.

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. Yes, every single chick in Dubai is hot. Jesus.

Oh that has happened before, Centre Point in London comes to my mind, that used to be empty long time after it was completed. Individuals may suffer, but there are always new investors to jump into their place.

Yeah, that's the guy, was just as angry a year ago.

American's won't go there. No need to risk getting arms and legs cut off over nothing. What happens if you get a speeding ticket, or you cross the street when the light says to wait? I bet they put you in jail for 10 years.

hey lets go to an islamic theocracy in the desert to see a tall building. im sure the entire place is the pinnacle of polite, liberal society

Not angry at all. TW has given me a very high tolerance level for olympic gold medal winning levels of stupidity. I'm having a lot of fun here. Being right all the time is just the icing on the cake.

I make fun of Dubai as much as anybody else, but you're just stupid. You lack worldly knowledge and it doesn't sound like you've ever left your country, or ever will. Your idea of a vacation is going to Tahoe or some rollercoaster park in Ohio. Lets get real, you live in a bubble.

Do all the chicks have hairy pussies?

Based on my personal survey, I would have to say yes. Fairly small sample in the research I conducted though. Just the wife, actually.

One thing I have noticed in every Dubai thread/news post is that it's full of jealous Americans making fun out of Dubai for whatever reason. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that they now have to travel outside U.S. if they want to see world's biggest/tallest buildings etc?

your wife has a hairy *****?

Your wife is a sand******?

Your powers of deductive reasoning are right up there. Good work.

Not so much.

If Man vs Food goes to Dubai you can bet your ARSE that ngfm will be there.

Mitch I am not going to bag on you as hard as some of the others but seriously as a layperson what makes you think that you would recognize a structural or technical fault with the building. Clearly taking the step of closing the entire building down was not taken lightly as they knew it would be a PR nightmare.

I highly doubt the issues are electrical in nature as this is simply to simple a scapegoat to be true. More likely inspections that are conducted regularly on a newly opened building of this nature have revealed flaws of a serious enough nature as to warrant closure. One could guess for hours at what these could be but 2 things come in to play here.

1. It was serious enough that they felt the public would be unsafe in the building.

2. The tenant move in deadline is what matters to them not the compareably paltry sum they are currently getting from tourists. Sure that cash is nice but it is the leased space that will pay the bills and if they cannot guarantee the move in dates promised to tenants they could be in a world of trouble financially.

If this issue is structural in nature it is a very real possability that this building will go bankrupt.

lol @mitch largest shopping mall eh. Will you be shopping in armed or unarmed..... so sad.... Just say Dubai sucks a dick. I'm pretty sure I can get a decent steak in a billion other places than going to sand ****** haven.

To be honest I don't really care about the "TALLEST BUILDING OMFG!!!", and I could give less than a **** about traveling to another country (or even another state) to see an overgrown monstrosity of a building. These up and coming nations seem to like to build them as some kind of phallic object, the largest architectural cock, like it cements their presence on the world stage. Indeed, Americans are steaming with rage that we no longer have the tallest building in the world. :rolleyes: It really doesn't mean ****.