Is Dubai's Burj Khalifa about to lose its crown? Abandoned skyscraper's comeback could reshape the skyline
Dubai, a city where the skyline never sleeps and architectural ambition knows no bounds, might soon witness a monumental reshuffle in its race to the heavens. For years, the towering Burj Khalifa—standing at a dizzying 830 metres—has reigned supreme as the tallest structure on Earth, symbolizing Dubai's glittering promise of wealth, imagination, and engineering marvel. But lurking in the shadows is a long-forgotten, billion-dollar contender that once aimed to shatter every record.
— XTravelMyWay (@XTravelMyWay)
The Rise, Fall, and Possible Rise Again of Dubai Creek Tower
First unveiled in 2016 with grandiose ambition and a jaw-dropping $1 billion investment, the
Dubai Creek Tower
was not just another high-rise. Designed by famed Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, the structure was envisioned as a 1,300-metre-high masterpiece inspired by Islamic minarets. It was to be the crown jewel of Dubai Creek Harbour—a new-age marvel with sky gardens, 10 observation decks, and a luxury hotel perched among the clouds.
It promised an experience higher, grander, and more futuristic than anything the
Burj Khalifa
offered. With its striking silhouette and poetic architectural intent, it was heralded as the future of Dubai's vertical dream.
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But by 2018, the dream began to crumble. Progress halted. The pandemic only deepened the silence around the project. By early 2019, even the construction staging areas lay abandoned—just a massive foundation pit in the desert where greatness once aimed to grow.
New Hope in a Changed Vision
Fast forward to 2024, and Emaar Properties—the developers behind the tower and the Burj Khalifa—have announced plans to revisit the dormant giant. This time, however, there's a twist. The redesign reportedly scales down the height, meaning the revised tower may no longer aim to surpass the Burj Khalifa. Official blueprints have not been made public yet, and while there's talk of renewed ambition, physical construction remains absent. In essence, the tower is alive on paper—but still asleep in reality.
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The question now gripping architecture buffs and Dubai-watchers alike: will it ever rise to challenge its older sibling, or will it remain a mirage in the city's ambitious skyline?
While the Dubai Creek Tower remains in limbo, the wider
Dubai Creek Harbour
project has quietly made progress. Residential blocks now line the banks of the historic 14-kilometre waterway, and public infrastructure has begun transforming the area into a modern urban oasis. But without its signature skyscraper, the heart of the development still beats with a question mark.
A Battle of Icons or a Legacy Left Behind?
Dubai has always sold dreams in steel and glass, and its skyline is a testament to that. Whether or not Dubai Creek Tower rises from the ashes of abandonment, its story speaks volumes about the city's relentless pursuit of architectural immortality—and the high stakes that come with it.
For now, the Burj Khalifa remains unchallenged. But in a city where anything is possible, even a sleeping titan may awaken.
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If they start participating, probably they may run faster compared to many other sectors, which are already quoting at a reasonable valuation at this point of time, and that could be a contra call as well, largely because of the fact that the demand for commodities expected to surge in the following period here after. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. ET Now: So, in the market, you do not make money by looking at yesterday's data, which is called history. In the market, you make money when you understand history and try and understand the future. Which are the next multibaggers? They may not be 100x, but the next five to seven years have the potential to, let us say, be 5x to 7x, five years 5x. Deven Choksey: Yes, a good point and this is something which we keep on debating every single day. In fact, there is a formula going on in the organisation that every single year you should produce one company which becomes 10 to 15 times in the next 10 years and that much patience you should have. So, that is what we have been doing up till now, with the grace of God. Well, currently the situation looks quite conducive to me for those companies which are typically a large degraded player for some of the larger OEMs. For example, in the automobile sector, since I mentioned OEM in the automobile sector, the companies that provide complete engineering and R&D services to this sector are the ones who are going to be participating big time in this changing environment, which we are going to be experiencing. Already, we have started experiencing the beginning of this decade, and it is going to further accelerate as we progress towards the close of this decade. 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Live Events Deven Choksey: In fact, in each of these names which you mentioned, their position has happened largely because how they executed their business and that is very-very important going forward as well because if yesterday was competitive, today and tomorrow are going to be extraordinarily more competitive because of the surge of technology along with. So in my viewpoint the companies which could possibly execute well are the ones which would be the winners of tomorrow and some of the names I do not mind sharing with a complete disclosure though that the companies like Tata Technology, companies like Bajaj Housing Finance, they are typically executing it a very differently and we like that proposition. The way in which these companies are executing their business, we find that they are creating a separate kind of presence in the industry for themselves and at the same time trying to show a relatively different path to the competition. 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Deven Choksey: See, the uncertainties, the competitions, disruptions, they are all going to happen. I am not saying they will not happen. Our eyes are typically in the area of renewables in particular, and within renewables, how the companies are going to be addressing the large problem of green hydrogen is something which we would like to be very keenly watching out for. As of now, there is nothing on the horizon that one can separately identify, but as we keep on looking around, there will be a few opportunities as we see they emerging over time, that is one area which we like. Second thing which we definitely like out here is a complete logistic management activity in the country with the rail, road, airport and seaport completely coming under one-fold with which is speeding up so fast on the highways, I believe that this is one space which could possibly be a good space for many of the large scale annuity based investors like insurance companies, provident fund companies which is emerging very-very strong with the high cash flow positions. And last but not least, power and power utilities. We believe that some of the companies are executing their programmes very well in power, power utilities and could potentially continue to run at a rate of around 20% CAGR over the next 5 to 10 years. So, yes, there are opportunities in those companies, we are completely with the names and the valuation at this stage. Maybe it is a subjective question for a while for us. ET Now: What do you think runs the risk of underperforming? And I am talking really long-term, forward-dated questions here. I mean, there are patches in the market, for example, where Infosys, when it peaked out in 2000, gave you subpar returns for the next 10 years. HUL, when it peaked out in 1994-95, 10 years it did not create wealth. What do you think runs the risk of giving returns which are lower than a fixed deposit or a government bond in the next five years? Deven Choksey: It is a very interesting question. We keep on looking into the corporate balance sheet as to how they deploy their money. When we see that the balance sheets do not have enough amount of avenues to deploy money, that is the first signal that we get, wherein we probably stay away from those companies. It would not be proper in my viewpoint at this point in time to name them on the screen, but frankly, the allocation policy of the company would possibly create either performance or underperformance. In my viewpoint, I think most corporate managements do not want to remain accountable to the allocation policy, and that is where one is a little about their continued performance, even though in past they have performed handsomely, so that is an area where we are a little bit more concerned about. We keep our eyes open, and certainly those companies do not mean good to us from the return point of view, so we have to take a gradual exit also from those companies without keeping much of the past in the back. ET Now: What do you believe leadership is going to look like in the years to come, because one has seen that it is now about M&M, Bharti, and BEL. It is no longer your ITC, L&T, Reliance or for that matter, any IT names. Deven Choksey: Consumption could be the one theme which probably will have to be looked at very seriously because the way in which individuals are left with income in their hand, the way in which corporates are generating higher amount of profit in their books, I believe that both B2B side of the consumption and B2C side of the consumption game could possibly be the big time disruptor. From my viewpoint, the companies which are utilising the ONDC platform, companies which are working with CBDCs, companies which are working with AI, IoTs are the ones who could possibly be a differentiator in this space. Now, whether they would produce the same magnitude of return which some of these companies have produced in the last 15-16 years, it is a matter of time that we analyse that part of it, because on an ongoing basis, we have to review this part. But we remain distinctly positive about the characteristics under which these companies will be producing returns, and that is where our focus is from a selection point of view of the stock in the portfolio.
