Future of Gold Tower 42 in Arbitration Court

The owner of the $240 million Gold Tower 42 project in Phnom Penh has entered into arbitration with the project’s builder, in a bid to get work started again after construction halted on the project in September 2010 due to poor unit sales and cost overruns, officials involved in the process said yesterday. Lee Sun-hum, country director of Yon Woo Cambodia Co. Ltd., the firm that owns Gold Tower 42, said the arbitration case in Seoul was started last year with Hanil Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd., the company that was contracted to build the skyscraper located at the intersection of Sihanouk and Monivong boulevards. Hanil broke ground at the site in March 2008, and set out on a mission to build Phnom Penh’s tallest building. But Gold Tower 42 was indefinitely suspended in September 2010 at the height of Cambodia’s property bust, which saw several other South Korean property projects—including the $2 billion Camko City development in Russei Keo district—grind to a halt. …