[Chip00]

Of course it is a good idea - it will bring international business and wealthy people - all who hav a lot of money to spend.

There are lots of medium size towns in the US that would be licking their chops to get anyone of these towers - I could make a list if anybody wants!

The philosophy of these major developers is "build it and they will come" and for the most part they have been proven right many more times than wrong. Ex. World Trade Center etc.

The truth of the matter is when projects get to a certain size all of the market studies, planning models and concurrency issues have to be tossed out of the window because they fail to be relevant. It is typically because they are narrow-minded in scope and short term in vision.

A good example would be this one crazy developer (ex client of mine) who, along with me and some others met the Orlando Planning staff to talk about the construction of a 3000' tower in downtown Orlando. The chief planner was there and all he could talk about was, could you fill it up, what about traffic, can you pay for it all and it didn't matter that my client said he was willing to invest US20billion. In fact the planner was so negative my client decided he'll find some other town in the US with real vision. And the real funny thing is the City has been trying for years and years to get industries and business to come to Orlando so they don't just have to rely on tourism and they don't realize that if you put in premium office space that it will attract all kinds of major players to your market - how 'bout that for cutting of your nose to spite your foot!

I know this can only be good for the DR. I think the capital has greatly improved in terms of cleanliness and roads from when I first visited in '99 and now and I'm sure the amount of new development has something to do with it. Notwithstanding the taxes that will be generated that potentially could be put to better use such as infrastructure and public safety