The tower was originally called the Portsmouth Millennium Tower and was designed as a monument to commemorate the Millennium celebrations in 2000. The project was conceived in 1995 with an original opening date planned for late 1999. Due to political, financial, contractual and construction problems and extra funding requests by the builders Mowlem, construction didn't begin until 2001 and was completed in mid-2005. Because of the six-year delay in opening and not having been ready for the Millennium as planned, the tower was renamed Spinnaker Tower.