Joshua Parfitt
BELEAGUERED by elevator crashes, worker strikes and five years of paralysis, Spain’s tallest residential building finally has a completion date set for next year.
The 192m high Intempo skyscraper in Benidorm received planning permission last December 19 for works set to last 18 months.
It comes after the American investment firm SVPGlobal purchased the debt of the building from previous owner, construction bank SAREB, for €60 million in 2017.
SVPGlobal has put the promotion and commercialisation works into the hands of the Catalan Uniq Residential, while Dragados will finish the construction of the tower.
Work on the iconic structure began in 2007 – when Intempo would have been the tallest residential structure in Europe – but a series of mishaps turned the dream of entrepreneur José Ignacio de la Serna into a monumental mess.
The skyscraper rose to fame when news circulated the architect had ‘forgotten’ to design an elevator for floors 20 to 47.
In 2010, workers went without pay for four months, while site managers neglected to install a freight elevator for the 41 builders until the first 23 floors were built.
When the elevator was installed, it crashed in July 2011, injuring 13 workers.
To add insult to injury, ambulances couldn’t access the site because no vehicle entrance had been built in order to save money. Several workers were seriously injured.
Works were eventually paralysed in 2014 and the building has been left 93% finished.
Only 35% of the 256 apartments have been sold. Spanish rental site Idealista has various listed with prices rising to €500,000.
The 95 m² room has two bedrooms and a terrace on the 37th floor.
The complex itself has 13,000 m² of communal areas. The top two floors are home to a spa, massage rooms, saunas, a gym, jacuzzis and a rooftop garden. The central tower also will be home to restaurant.
A beach-style pool and a kid’s play pool can be found at the back of the building, while a front terrace has a playground.
