The AIA Central ( zh, t=友邦金融中心, link=no), formerly called AIG Tower ( zh, t=美國國際集團大廈, labels=no), 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
AIA Group Limited, often known as AIA (), is a Hong Kong–based multinational insurance and finance corporation. It is the largest publicly traded life insurance group in the Asia-Pacific region. It offers insurance and financial services, ...
.
It is located in
Central, not far from the landmark
Bank of China Tower.
The
Furama Kempinski Hotel
The Furama Hotel () was a 33-storey hotel in Central, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong, located at 1 Connaught Road Central. The site is now occupied by the AIA Central office building.
History
The Furama Hotel was designed by Eric Cumine Associ ...
, 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,
CapitaLand
CapitaLand Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. The company has a presence in over 260 cities across more than 40 countries.
CapitaLand has six listed real ...
, 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. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...
(AIG). The architectural firm
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer ...
designed the building to look like the
Chinese junk, 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 .
[
Lai Sun Development ("LSD"), founded by textiles magnate ]Lim Por-yen
Lim Por-yen（21 December 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 was born in Chaoyang, Shantou, on 21 December 1 ...
, 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 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...
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 ( ) is a Singaporean State ownership, state-owned multinational investment firm. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek has a net portfolio of US$288 billion (S$389 billion) as of 2024. Headquartered at Orchard ...
.[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
See also
*List of tallest buildings in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has over 9,000 Tower block, high-rise buildings, of which over 4,000 are skyscrapers standing taller than with 564 buildings above as of 2025, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The tallest building in H ...
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