The tallest Torre.

• Author: Luxner, Larry
• Position: Americas [??]Ojo! - Brief Article

JUST MONTHS AFTER the destruction of New York's World Trade Center, one might suspect that flashy, ostentatious office towers that dwarf everything else around them have become a thing of the past.

Tell that to Arturo Aispuro, vice president of development at REISO Services S.A. de C.V., the Mexican subsidiary of Reichmann International. The Canadian real-estate giant--famous for glitzy projects ranging from Toronto's First Canadian Place to London's Canary Wharf--is now racing to finish Latin America's tallest structure in the heart of Mexico City.

When completed in December, the fifty-five-story Torre Mayor will poke 738 feet into the sky. That'll eclipse by only a few feet the twin towers of Venezuela's Parque Central, which currently holds the record.

"The height of our building is certainly its most impressive characteristic, but for us it's not the most important," says Aispuro, who's managing the $250 million project. "We're trying to create a new symbol for Mexico City, and we truly believe that the city has made the right decision in trying to stop flight to the suburbs and bring business back to the center."

During a tour of the construction site overlooking Paseo de la Reforma--one of Mexico City's most important boulevards--Aispuro says that it will take ten to fifteen years for Reichmann to break even on its investment.

"We are absolutely confident that the economy is coming back again," he says. "Reforma is the most important corridor in Mexico City. This location, in particular, is the heart of the city. We're close to advanced transportation systems and two or three main subway stations."

Torre Mayor--whose official website offers netsurfers a camera view of the construction site that refreshes itself every sixty seconds--is slightly ahead of schedule, with progress now averaging about one floor a week.

"The financial market is doing quite well right now," says Aispuro. "We have leased a quarter of the building with just two companies. We expect to fill it up completely within two and a half to three years."

The Reichmann executive says he's negotiating with at least two more U.S. multinationals and three large Mexican companies to lease space in Torre Mayor. Aispuro predicts that 60-65 percent of the building's twenty-five or so expected tenants will be non-Mexican companies, and that seven thousand people will eventually be working in the building...