The AIA Central (), formerly called AIG Tower (), in Hong Kong is a 185-metre (607 ft.), 37-storey skyscraper that was completed in 2005 and serves as the headquarters of AIA Group. It is located in Central, not far from the landmark Bank of China Tower. The Furama Kempinski Hotel, famous for its revolving restaurant, formerly stood on the same lot that the former AIG Tower rises from, but in December 2001, the 33-storey hotel was demolished to make way for the AIG Tower. The tower was renamed to AIA Central on 9 July 2009. The building was jointly developed by

Lai Sun Development Lai Sun Development ("LSD") is a property developer in Hong Kong, public company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange established in 1987 by the textiles magnate Lim Por-yen.Raymond Wang and Teddy NgLai Sun Group founder Lim dies at 93, '' The S ...

CapitaLand CapitaLand is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies and the owner and manager of a global portfolio comprising integrated develo ...

, and

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

(AIG). The architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the building to look like the

Chinese junk A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

, a Chinese sailboat design dating from ancient times and still in use today. Leslie E. Robertson Associates are the structural engineers for this project. As well they included a pedestrian bridge linking the tower to the Hong Kong elevated walkway network. The building has approximately 41,777 m² (450,000 ft²) of office accommodation.

Plot history

The 999-year leasehold site has an area of .

("LSD"), founded by textiles magnate

Lim Por-yen Lim Por-yen (; c. 1914 – 18 February 2005) was a Hong Kong industrialist. He founded the Lai Sun Group, and his family was the biggest shareholder of Asia Television. Biography Lim Por-yen was born in Chaoyang, Guangdong, and moved to Hong ...

, paid HK$7 billion for Furama Hotel Enterprises in June 1997. Lai Sun, which already owned the Ritz-Carlton Hotel next door, acquired a 45.42 per cent stake for $3.13 billion, and made a general offer at $33.50 for each remaining shares at a total cost of $6.893 billion. LSD intended to combine the two plots into a prime office block. Then the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...

struck, plunging the entire group into distress and forced asset sales. In March 2000, LSD announced that a 65% stake in the Furama Hotel would be sold to a 50:50 joint venture between Pidemco and AIG for HK$1.88 billion.AIG joins Pidemco in $1.88b bid for 65pc of waterfront site
, ''The Standard'', 1 March 2000 Pidemco, the largest owner of commercial properties in Singapore, is part of Singapore Technologies, controlled by

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

.Clare Cheung
Lai Sun in move to bail out unit
, ''The Standard'', 11 March 2000 As part of the deal, Lai Sun would continue to operate the hotel until its redevelopment. The Furama Hotel closed in November, and was demolished in December 2001. Following the demolition of the Furama Hotel, the construction of the new tower AIA Central commenced in November 2002. AIA Central is a 37-storey grade A office building with a gross floor area of approximately 41,777 square metres. It provides 26 floors of prime office space, each of some 13,000 – 15,000 square foot lettable area with a total gross area of 450,000 square foot. The building was developed by Bayshore Development Group Limited, a joint venture of AIA and Lai Sun Development Company Limited.

Gallery

Image:aigtower.jpg, Westerly view of AIA Central in August 2006, Ritz Carlton on the left Image:aigtower2.jpg, AIA Central amongst the Hong Kong skyline in February 2006 Image:AIG Tower Grand Lobby.jpg, Grand Lobby of AIA Central in November 2007

References

External links

Tower's websiteAIG Tower on SOM.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aia Central Skyscraper office buildings in Hong Kong Central, Hong Kong Office buildings completed in 2005 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings

Plot history

Gallery

See also

References

External links