Indians eye place in world's tallest residential building

The world's tallest, purely-residential skyscraper has been launched in the city that pioneered the skyscraper but the aptly-named, 2000-feet tall 'Chicago Spire' is the first time that a building destined to be iconic internationally is actively inviting - and receiving - interest from Indian punters.

The Spire, designed by one of Europe's most celebrated architects Santiago Calatrava in the city that has prided itself on its high-rise skyline for nearly 150 years, is seen to be real estate as art, right down to the individually-designed door handles and ceilings and windows combining vertical and trapezoidal glass panels in each of the 1193 exclusive apartments.

But the Spire's epic scale - soaring to a height from where the curvature of the earth can clearly be seen - does not sacrifice Calatrava's famous lightness of touch. The 150-storey building, which will rise and curl like an architectural will o' wisp from an entirely transparent cathedral-like lobby, will be the highest point to live on earth, from its 50 th storey upwards.

At least four real-estate companies from Maharashtra have already declared an interest in buying into the Spire's "penthouses-in the sky". The Spire boldly claims it is looking to become an international 'home away from home' for millionaires from around the world. Some of the Indian companies, which include one Pune firm and three from Mumbai, admitted to TOI that they are transfixed by the investment possibilities of selling an eyrie in the American sky to India's burgeoning jet-setting ranks of dollar multi-millionaires.

Unusually for an American high-rise residential complex, particularly one sure to become a mascot for a city pitching hard for the 2016 Olympics and which boasts America's busiest airport and claims it is "ideally located as a link to both Europe and Asia", the Spire is being sold globally. Dominic Grace of Savills, the British estate agent marketing the Spire across the world, says the Spire's exhibition road show will roll out in 14 key cities in south and south-eastern Asia, Europe and South Africa from January.

Mike Golden, of Chicago's local Spire-selling estate agent, @property, says Chicago's international appeal, including to Indian investors, is its status as the home of 66 Fortune 500 companies and the fact that one of its downtown areas, the buzzing Streeterville, is the world's second-highest income generator after New York's Upper East Side.

The smallest flat in the Spire, which is expected come 2010 to become a global symbol for a city on the move, will have a starting price of $750,000 f or a one-bedroom piece of art that will include a circular bed enclosure, sliding glass walls and a galley-style kitchen that can be made to disappear from view. The Calatrava-designed taps, bathroom fittings and style mod-cons are thought likely to reach the status of 'contemporary collectibles' with potential auction prices running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Flats will have a top price in the region of $ 40 million.