EU's Tallest Residential Building Completed in Costa Blanca, Spain

Nearly 15 years after construction first kicked off, Intempo, an eccentric, vaguely M-shaped residential high-rise towering 650-plus feet above the coastal town of Benidorm, Spain, is finally complete. Initially derailed by th

BY Realty Plus
Published - Tuesday, 27 Jul, 2021

EU's Tallest Residential Building Completed in Costa Blanca, Spain

Nearly 15 years after construction first kicked off, Intempo, an eccentric, vaguely M-shaped residential high-rise towering 650-plus feet above the coastal town of Benidorm, Spain, is finally complete. Initially derailed by the 2008 economic crisis, Intempo’s journey to full realization has been a decidedly off-tempo one, its momentum disrupted by construction fits and starts, bankruptcies, sluggish sales, multiple owners, resigning architects, and weird internet rumors involving elevators. (But not the global pandemic, apparently.) Still, the 47-story apartment building has emerged from its seemingly cursed status with several noteworthy superlatives still in place: it is the tallest residential building anywhere within the European Union, the tallest structure of any type in Spain constructed outside of Madrid, and one of the world’s tallest buildings completed in a city with fewer than 100,000 residents. Home to just under 70,000 permanent residents, it’s easy to label Benidorm, located on Spain’s Mediterranean coast in the Valencian province of Alicante, as that country’s version of Miami Beach. A more apt comparison, however, might be Ocean City, Maryland, or something a bit more Jersey Shore-ish. While Benidorm’s sprawling beaches, family-friendly diversions, and rowdy nightlife scene do attract a fair number of Madrid residents, the town is a particularly popular destination, rather notoriously, for visitors hailing from the United Kingdom although tourists from Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium also play into the mix. Intempo’s completion 100 of the building’s 256 apartment units have been sold, 60 percent of them to Spaniards and the rest to Russians, Germans, Belgians, and Scandinavians. Conspicuously missing, however, are the Benidorm-loving Brits, who comprise nearly half of all visitors to the city. Intempo’s penthouse units, located on the 45th floor within the cone-shaped structure that spans the structure’s two lanky parallel towers, cost roughly $3.5 million each. The building’s smallest condos, which have all been snatched up, started just north of $300,000. Just above the penthouse level, on the 46h floor, is a dizzying outdoor pool. One floor up on the building’s crowning level are more communal amenities including a cocktail lounge.