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Bought from a German fund last month for £200m, the Helter-skelter, now to be known as the Pinnacle, is set to rise to nearly 1,000ft and dominate the City of London. Driving it on, to the surprise of many, is an Arab investment club. Darren Lazarus met its founder, Khalid Affara
Khalid Affara lounges nonchalantly on a sofa in the Lanesborough hotel, Knightsbridge, looking too relaxed to be contemplating the construction of the City's tallest skyscraper.
But behind the Yemen-born managing director of Arab Investments is the oil-fuelled financial backing of 70 Middle Eastern backers, giving him the confidence to press on with plans to speculatively build the Helterskelter on Bishopsgate, EC2 - now rebranded as the Pinnacle, after the name was first suggested by EG (25 June 2005, pSO).
Affara's biggest hurdle after buying the site last week for £200m, however, will be to convince the market that his company will actually be developing the 950,000 sq ft, 945ft, KPF-designed tower. Rival developers have dismissed the 41-year-old Affara as lacking the experience to deliver such a large-scale scheme, and point out he has no track record for developing towers.
But Affara has been slowly winning round the more fair-minded of the sceptics in his softly-spoken, low-key way. "I don't want to waste my breath trying to argue with people to convince them that the Pinnacle will be built," he says, one week after completing the £200m acquisition of the site from German fund Union Investment Real Estate, previously known as Difa.
"Actions speak louder than words. There is only one way to convince anyone that it is going to be built - and that's by building the thing. So I hope by January or February, all these doubting Thomases will suddenly say: 'Actually - I think it is going to happen.'"
Arab Investments itself is beginning to get noticed. It bought 23 Grosvenor Place in the West End and sold it for a £62m profit in December 2006, and has become involved in two City schemes on Gracechurch Street, EC3. It also owns the 25,000 sq ft Powerhouse in Milton Keynes, the 30,000 sq ft Stock Exchange in Manchester, two hotels, and 20 acres of residential development land in Stourport and Derby.
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