Prime Tower

This tower houses banking, law, and consulting firms: around two thousand jobs fit into forty thousand square meters. At one hundred twenty-six meters tall, it stands out above the complex's low adjoining buildings. The upper floors are given over to a restaurant, bar, and conference rooms, so visitors include not only those who have an office here.

On November nineteenth, two thousand eight, the foundation was laid here for what would become Switzerland's tallest tower. Two months earlier, the American bank Lehman Brothers had gone bankrupt, and the financial crisis had already reached Europe. Swiss Prime Site invested its shareholders' money in the project, which cost three hundred fifty-five million Swiss francs. Tenant contracts covered only fifty-two percent of the future premises.

Peter Lehmann, the company's investment director, was responsible for the calculations. He needed to fill forty thousand square meters of offices in an area whose factory halls had until recently still been occupied by businesses. Lehmann assumed that banks, law firms, and consultancies would want to leave expensive traditional addresses in the center for more convenient and cheaper floors near Hardbrücke station. The company's management decided to continue construction while other investors tried not to take on new commitments.

The developer acquired this very plot after taking over Maag Holding in two thousand four. By then, the industrial divisions had already been sold, and the former engineering company had become a real-estate holder. The project was initially called Maag Tower. The surname of the former industrialist was then replaced with a word from the new owner's name: “Prime.”

By July two thousand ten, the tower had reached its full height of one hundred twenty-six meters, and tenants had already taken up more than two-thirds of the space under contract. At the official opening on December sixth, two thousand eleven, no vacant premises remained. The complex's four buildings generated more than twenty-nine million francs in annual rent; their estimated value had risen by more than one hundred ten million. The tower alone contained around two thousand jobs, mainly in banking, law, and consulting.

The upper floors were set aside for a restaurant, bar, and conference rooms, so part of the building is accessible to people who do not work here. Swiss Prime Site still remains the owner. Its own Zurich office is also here, at two hundred one Hardstrasse. The name Maag has remained with the surrounding area, while the tower retained the name of the company that risked seeking tenants for its unfinished floors.