United Bank S.C. has signed a headquarters construction agreement with China Jiangsu International Economic-Technical Cooperation Corp (CJIETCC) for around 1.5 billion Br on May 14, 2015 at Hilton Addis Hotel.
The construction work, which will begin before the end of this month, is expected to be completed in a period of three and half years. The 30-storey headquarters will be 119m high and will have four basements. It will also include an employee lounge, conference rooms, and a parking lot that can serve up to 200 cars at once.
It has taken almost one year to award the construction to the selected company, said Taye Dibekulu, president of United Bank S.C. Of the seven companies that had submitted Expressions of Interest (EOI), three were shortlisted – two from China and one from India.
Established in 1980, CJIETCC had previously taken part in the construction of Hope University and Derba MIDROC Cement Factory, said Zhou Jun, general manager of CJITCC. But this is the largest construction project it has ever taken, he added.
For the last eight months, drilling and shoring were being undertaken at a cost of around 40 million Br and these activities are expected to be finalised this month, paving the way for the commencement of the construction, said Taye.
The design for the headquarters was awarded to Eskender Wubetu & Partners Consulting Architects through a design competition held in 2012. Forty one designs were submitted to the competition and subsequently evaluated by a jury of eight from the Association of Ethiopian Architects (AEA).
It was in the same year that United had acquired a 3,338sqm plot of land for the construction of its headquarters, located across the street from Addis Abeba University College of Commerce at the developing financial district along Ras Abebe Aregay Street.
Other financial institutions such as Dashen Bank, Wegagen Bank, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), Nile Insurance and United Bank are also constructing their headquarters in this financial district.
On April 28, 2015, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), too, signed an agreement with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) at CBE’s head office located along Sudan St., for the construction of its headquarters. The 46-storey building with a height of 198m will be located on a 10,528sqm plot of land. Nib International Bank (NIB) and Nib Insurance Company (NIC) have also announced an international bid on April 15, 2015 for the final phase construction of its 31-storey headquarters. The bid which was scheduled to be opened on May 19,2015, was postponed.
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