French construction giant Bouygues has signed a €200m ($230m) contract with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for the construction of the Alto Tower at the Paris financial suburb of La Défense.
The works will be carried out by Bouygues subsidiary Bâtiment Ile-de-France Construction Privée.
The 150m tower was designed by IF Architectes and will contain 51,000 square metres of office space over 38 floors. The building will be "flared" with the cross-section increasing from 700 square metres at the bottom to 1,500 at the top.
The project also includes the construction of a car park, shops and a public square, which will be developed in collaboration with authority responsible for La Défense.
Bernard Mounier, the chief executive of Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France, said: "The award of this contract after 18 months of technical and engineering studies repays the motivation and hard work of all the teams. Â
"By combining their range of skills, we were able to meet our customer’s expectations. We are very enthusiastic to have the chance to build a skyscraper at La Défense."
Preliminary design work will be completed during 2016. Site works will begin in September this year and are due to be completed in the first quarter of 2020.
The site of the project is presently occupied by the Les Saisons office building.
