Dubai, France's Tallest Tower Outside Paris Opens

Industry News for February 9, 2016 TALLEST FRENCH TOWER OUTSIDE OF PARIS OPENS Office tenants have moved in to France's new tallest building outside Paris, the 202-m-tall, 39-story Tour Incity in Lyon, Skyrise Cities reported. Designed by Valode & Pistre Architects, the building has a 50-ft. spire and rises above the 165-m-tall Part-Dieu Tower, which formerly dominated the Lyon skyline. thyssenkrupp tells ELEVATOR WORLD it supplied four TWIN systems, serving 37 floors and with a speed of 4-5 mps; a "half" TWIN that could be updated with another cab at a later date; five additional elevators and two escalators for the project. LIFTBALKANS POSTPONED Organizers of LiftBalkans, a Southeast European industry exhibition planned for April 5-7 in Sofia, Bulgaria, have postponed the event indefinitely. The Expo Team of Via Expo Ltd. cited “the difficult economic situation” and “insufficient number of participants.” ELEVATOR WORKER WAS DRAGGED UPWARD IN FATAL N.J. ACCIDENT A 44-year-old elevator repairman died as a result of being dragged upward by the elevator on which he was performing monthly maintenance on February 2 in Guttenberg, New Jersey, NJ.com reports. Initial reports stated he fell down a shaft, but further investigation revealed he became trapped between the door and the top portion of the cab and was then dragged. The incident occurred in a 415-ft.-tall luxury condominium building. NEW EXECUTIVE POSITIONS AT COLUMBIA ELEVATOR Columbia Elevator Products Co. Inc. has announced that Louis “L.J.” Blaiotta, Jr. will assume the position of CEO of the company. Blaiotta will continue to focus on Columbia’s strategic direction and future alliances. His former role as president will be assumed by Jim Yates, who will be responsible for all day-to-day operations. Furthermore, as part of Columbia’s executive restructure, Grace Y. Greco has been named director of marketing and business development and Tom Birdsall as director of engineering. Yates has a 30-plus-year background of finance experience in a manufacturing environment and has been chief operating officer at Columbia. Greco came to Columbia in 2010 and has performed customer service, construction project management, service sales, new equipment sales and national accounts. Birdsall has been working at Columbia for more than 20 years as facilities manager and in various other capacities. Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/elevatorworld/frances-tallest-tower-outside Visit our news page: http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/february-9-2016