Sri Lanka’s Cinnamon Life completes residential tower, 30-floor office block

19th April , 2021

Sri Lanka’s Cinnamon Life had completed construction of one residential tower with 196 apartments and an 30-floor office tower, John Keells Holdings said.

Planned as a ‘city within a city’, Cinnamon Life will also have an 800-roomed luxury Cinnamon hotel, along with offices and residences, the property will also have premium retail and entertainment malls.

The project is built by HKN Construction, a consortium made up of Hyundai, Keangnam and Nawaloka.

“John Keells Holdings first conceptualized Cinnamon Life in 2010,” Chairman Krishan Balendra said after ‘The Offices’ and ‘The Suites’ towers were handed over by HKN Project Director T H Kim.

“Operating Cinnamon Grand and Cinnamon Lakeside, two large five star hotels, we knew that Colombo didn’t have the facilities to host large regional events.

“Cinnamon Life with its 800 roomed hotel, multiple banqueting and conferencing spaces and retail space is now positioned to host some of the biggest events in the region, particularly in South Asia.

“It’s the largest private investment in Sri Lanka to date, and with its completion in the next year, we expect that Cinnamon Life will position Colombo as the leisure, entertainment and retail epicentre of the South Asian region.”

The 4.5 million square feet Cinnamon Life was designed b Lankan-British designer, artist and writer Cecil Balmond.

The residential apartments are priced at 395,000 dollars upwards.

The project was built during a time of exceptional monetary instability in Sri Lanka triggered by call money rate targeting and real effective exchange rate targeting and later Modern Monetary Theory which saw multiple currency collapses and growth shocks.

The rupee has fallen from 131 to 200 over 5 years, destroying financial savings and purchasing power of the people.

The towers are being completed as Sri Lanka is recovering from a Coronavirus crisis.

“These are challenging times, not just for us but for the world as a whole,” Balendra said. “With the right attitude, however, no challenge is insurmountable and as we, together with HKN, have ably demonstrated with the completion of these two towers.”