The Chinese government remains silent about why it has permitted construction to resume on a 117-story skyscraper in Tianjin city nearly a decade after it was abandoned, China media are reporting, with a goal to complete it by 2027. The project’s $78-million construction permit has caused some surprises because China’s property sector is struggling to find buyers amid an economic slowdown. The building, originally named Goldin Finance 117, has remained the world’s tallest unoccupied building since 2015, when financial fallout from a Chinese stock market crash forced the project’s Hong Kong-based real estate developer to liquidate.
 
The outer structure of the 597-m tall building begun in 2008 has been built while the inner walls and other structures remained incomplete at the time it was deserted. Construction restarted in 2011, and the building was projected to finishin 2018 or 2019. 

The building comprises a reinforced-concrete core and perimeter steel framing that includes megacolumns and megabraces, The tower relies on “mega columns” to strengthen it against earthquakes and high winds, while its overall aesthetic is intended to draw comparisons to a walking stick. Once completed, the supertall skyscraper will include apartments, a luxury hotel and businesses—all topped by a diamond-shaped atrium level featuring an observation deck and swimming pool.
 
The government permit has been made out in the name of a state-owned company, BGI Engineering Consultants, instead of the original owner, Goldin Properties Holdings. There are no signs that the building architect, Hong Kong-based P&T Group, would be changed.
 
When completed, the building would rank third in height in China and possibly eighth in the world if Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower and Dubai’s Burj Azizi are finished as planned. The Shanghai Tower (632 m) and Shenzhen’s Ping An Finance Centre (555 m) rank first and second among tallest Chinese buildings.
 
This may be the last building above 500 meters in height in China because the National Development Reforms Commission and the Ministry of Housing ruled in 2020 that no building above this height would be permitted. The country has 91 buildings that are more than 200 meters tall.

New project financing details were not announced, although some experts believe the government has invested and offered debt restructuring to help revitalize the building. The government also said last month it will allow construction to resume on a 468-m-tall building by the Greenland Group in the southwestern city of Chengdu, which was put on hold in 2023.
 
“The national government has made it clear it wants to stabilize the real estate market,” Qiao Shitong, a law professor at North Carolina-based Duke University School of Law and author of two books on Chinese real estate, told CNN. “It is signaling to the market [that[ … by having this project revived and completed, the government at least hopes it can increase people’s confidence.”

The Tianjin project may not retain its original name, Goldin Finance 117, and it is unclear if there would be changes in its usage plan. The skyscraper was planned as a place for the superrich with a
luxury hotel, apartments and offices. It has a diamond-shaped atrium
level featuring an observation deck and swimming pool, but local reports suggest it will be a mixed-use building.

Building “megacolumns will primarily carry the gravity loads and, coupled with the megabrace system, its lateral loads,” said a research report “Health Monitoring System Developed for Tianjin 117 High-Rise Building,” which was published in the March 2017 issue of the Journal of Aerospace Engineering. “This plan enabled designers to minimize the size of the perimeter subcolumns and maximize the usable space around the core walls in the center of the tower.” The skyscraper faces risks from high-velocity winds and possible earthquakes since Tianjin is located in a high seismic intensity zone, said the report. 

“There is the challenge of designing the slim tower in the high seismic zone of northern China,” said a 2012 study published by six Arup engineers in the International Journal of High-Rise Buildings.