Unfinished Elbtower an eyesore in Hamburg

Risky project: The site of the Elbtower building in Germany. Embattled Benko has handed over control of Signa to a restructuring expert. — Reuters

FRANKFURT: A concrete skeleton looming over Hamburg’s harbour was supposed to be the crown jewel of a historic revitalisation project, but on a rainy day last week, cranes and forklifts stood still as uncertainty deepened around the fate of its developer’s finances.

Instead of serving as a modern sentinel for the German port city, the Elbtower has become a monument to the excess of Rene Benko, the embattled mogul who pushed through the office tower even as other developers backed away from risky high-rises.