Bayer Taiwan moves into Taipei 101 tower

Taipei, April 19, 2005 (CENS)--Bayer Taiwan moved into the Taipei 101 tower yesterday, making it the first enterprise to open offices on the world's highest building.

So far, the building has rented out 50% of its office rooms and is expected to rent out the remaining units by the end of next year, according to the company managing the building. Considering the better-than-expected renting rate, the company is mulling hiking the rental to at least NT$3,000 (US$96 at US$1:NT$31) per ping (one ping equals to 36 square feet) a month.

Bayer Taiwan's new offices are on 53th and 54th floors of the 101-story building. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou as well as chairperson M.S. Chen and president H.M. Lin of the tower's management company offered their congratulations in person to Bayer Taiwan's chairman, Elmar Stachels. The Taipei City Government owns the building and contracted Chen's company to manage the asset.

Ma touted the tower has the world's strictest security system after he started the tower's unique visitor access kiosk system (VAKS). The system, developed by Siemens AG of Germany, is reportedly more advanced than the systems working in the United Nations building and the Kuala Lumpur's twin tower buildings.

The management company's Lin estimated 12,000 people to work and 18,000 people to shop in the tower every day once the tower's office rooms are completely rented out. The tremendous people flow, Lin noted, will become a major challenge to the building's security system.

From yesterday, all people wishing to visit the tower's enterprises are required to have their photos taken for filing and pass through optical-scanning gates. The VAKS costs around NT$10 million (US$322,500) in its software alone.

Following Bayer Taiwan, other enterprises including Cosmos Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Stock Exchange Co., Fulland Securities Consultant and Royal Gold will move in soon.