FT Chronicle

Dubai will finally unveil the world’s tallest building on Monday, making it a symbol of fortitude despite the city state’s shaky financial grip.

The Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower, possessed the final height of more than 2,625 feet (800 meters) much taller than the Taipei 101, the world’s previous record holder, in Taiwan which rises 1,667 feet (508 meters).

The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world’s tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota.

Work on the Burj Dubai started in 2004 and continued swiftly. Periodically, new stories were being added nearly every three days, showing Dubai’s intense drive to remake itself over a few years from a small-time desert settlement into a sophisticated urban giant full with skyscrapers.

Thousands of manual workers, most of them brought in on temporary contracts from India, had finished 100 stories by January 2007.

The completed creation has more than 160 floors which topped Chicago’s Willis Tower, the tallest record-holder in the U.S. formerly known as the Sears Tower by 50 stories.

At their peak, some apartments in the Burj were selling for more than $1,900 per square foot, though they now can go for less than half that, said Heather Wipperman Amiji, chief executive of Dubai real estate consultancy Investment Boutique.

Besides luxury apartments and offices, the Burj will be home to a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

Emaar has said the entire Downtown Burj Dubai development, which includes the tower, will cost $20 billion to build. Sales of properties around the Burj are meant to help pay for the tower itself, which analysts say is unlikely to be profitable on its own.

Dubai’s ruler will open the tapering metal-and-glass spire with a fireworks display Monday evening.