Chinese team to build world’s tallest twin towers in Phnom Penh

A Chinese consortium has won a contract to build two towers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. The team led by Sino Great Wall International and Wuchang Shipbuilding Industy Group offered to complete the work for $2.7bn.

The 133-storey buildings will be 560m high, making them the fourth tallest in today’s league table, although they may have slipped down the rankings by the time they are finished in 2022. They are likely to become the world’s tallest twins, however, as they will be 108m taller than the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

The project is to be developed by a joint venture between the Thai Boon Roong Group of Cambodia, and Macau-based property developer Sun Kian Ip Group. It will contain a mix of residential and commercial units, include a hotel, serviced apartments and offices, a shopping mall, an exhibition hall, a cinema, restaurants and basement car park. The gross building area is around 1.6 million square metres.

As well as the towers it will have four residential buildings of 59 to 65 storeys, an 11-storey podium structure with three levels of basement, and another three levels of basement under the existing Hun Sen Plaza in front of the Twin Towers.

Thai Boon Roong was owned by Teng Boonma, a colourful and controversial figure in Cambodian society, who was known for his habit of drawing guns during disputes. He died in June last year.

It was reported in the Cambodian press in March that work had begun on the scheme with Hsin Chong Construction Group of Hong Kong acting as construction manager. Although permission to build was granted by the Ministry of Land Management, progress was halted after the death of Mr Teng.  

GCR reported at that time that Cambodia was experiencing record levels of investment in its property sector, with almost $3.5bn spent on new-build projects, a 40% increase on 2014. In a report covering the second half of last year, property consultant Knight Frank said office, retail and condominium projects had grown rapidly, with the supply of condos set to increase 641% by 2018.

However, the Cambodian Daily notes that another major project, the country’s tallest building at present, the 39-storey Vattanac Capital building, was completed in 2014, but only reached an occupancy rate of about 30% by the middle of 2016.

Image: A rendering of the completed towers alongside the Mekong River (Thai Boon Roong)