A consortium led by Sino Great Wall International won a $2.7 billion contract on Thursday to build 133-story twin commercial skyscrapers in Phnom Penh, a five-year project that would make them among the world’s tallest buildings, officials said.
The Phnom Penh contract will come into effect once the consortium, which includes Sino Great Wall International and another Chinese company, Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry, finalizes the funding, according to Reuters.
In a filing to the Chinese stock exchange in Shenzhen, Sino Great Wall said construction was expected to take about 60 months.
The Thai Boon Roong Group had previously received approval for the project—a mix of a hotel, offices and condominium space— to be built on 5 hectares of prime real estate across from the NagaWorld casino.
Phnom Penh municipal governor Pa Socheatvong said on Friday that the project plan was being reviewed again by the Ministry of Land Management.
“We are recorrecting the plan because the land is close to the riverside. So we have to be careful, especially with its depth,” Mr. Socheatvong said.
Seng Lot, a spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management, could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Thai Boon Roong, which operates the InterContinental hotel in Phnom Penh, is owned by the son of the late Teng Bunma, a reclusive tycoon who had a history of drawing guns during disputes.
In its most recent report, covering the second half of last year, real estate consultancy Knight Frank says that office, retail and condominium projects have seen rapid growth, with the supply of condos set to increase 641 percent by 2018.
The country’s tallest building—the 39-story Vattanac Capital building—may offer a glimpse into the twin towers’ fate. Completed in 2014, the tower only reached an occupancy rate of about 30 percent by the middle of last year, the company’s senior leasing manager told The Guardian newspaper in July.
Another major project, Gold Tower 42, led by the South Korean company Yon Woo Cambodia, has stumbled since it broke ground in 2008. Construction on the 42-story building at the intersection of Monivong and Sihanouk boulevards is now expected to finish in 2018.
