Chapter 787 The Kingdom Building is completed

In fact, since the beginning of the Paraguayan counteroffensive, Australasia has not interfered too much with the actions of the Paraguayan army.

The officer corps originally dispatched has also been transformed into a military observation group. Anyway, they can also learn something by observing the war between the two countries.

As for Australasia, they are constantly estimating the war potential of Bolivia and Paraguay.

The so-called war potential actually refers to the human, material and financial resources that the two countries can still spend.

In fact, not only Australasia, but most likely Britain and France are also making estimates to determine the time for the war to end.

The reality is so cruel. In fact, Britain and Australasia have already had the strength to end this war, and they can also reduce Paraguay's casualties a lot.

But the problem is that doing so will not do any good for Britain and Australasia, which is why neither country has stepped forward to mediate the war.

For the three major powers behind this war, Britain, France and Australia, no matter what the outcome of the war is, the most important thing is to earn enough benefits from this war.

Even if Bolivia, supported by France, is ultimately defeated, France will still be able to earn certain benefits from Bolivia's large loans, and overall it will not necessarily suffer a loss.

This is actually the most fundamental difference between great powers and small countries. The great powers are the chess players of the world order. For people who play chess, the collision between the chess pieces will not hurt them. At most, it will only be a loss that makes them embarrassed.

In fact, judging from the comprehensive national strength of Bolivia and Paraguay, the war has lasted for such a long time, and the comprehensive national strength of the two countries has been consumed a lot.

It can be expected that the war will end this year or next year, and no matter how late, the two countries will not have the strength to participate in the war.

It didn't matter to Arthur when the war ended. Anyway, through several previous actions, Australasia has ensured its own interests.

When the war ends depends on the actions of the British, and Arthur doesn't care.

Arthur's eyes still remain on the large-scale construction in the country. There is a very important thing for Arthur, that is, the Kingdom Building in Sydney is about to be completed.

As the world's tallest building in the eyes of the Sydney City Government, the construction and completion of the Kingdom Tower attracted the attention of a large number of Australasians.

To be precise, the Kingdom Building started on May 25, 1930, and was expected to be completed on November 1, 1931.

Such a short construction time seems a bit exaggerated. After all, this is not an ordinary building. This is truly the tallest building in the world. (This is not an exaggeration. The Empire State Building took only 410 days to build.)

Because of such a rapid construction speed, people at home and abroad are very curious about this building, which is known as the world's tallest building. Many domestic and foreign media rushed to Sydney, waiting for the completion of this skyscraper to be the first to enter the Kingdom Building. Take photos inside.

In fact, the reason why this building was built in such a short time is largely due to the protection of various government policies.

As one of the key projects in large-scale construction, the Kingdom Building is not only a landmark for the Sydney Municipal Government, but also an opportunity to completely build Sydney's reputation.

It is precisely because of this that the Sydney Municipal Government hired outstanding design and construction teams from all over the world and worked overtime to complete the building within the estimated time frame.

As the monarch of Australasia, Arthur will naturally not miss the completion celebration of the Kingdom Building.

In fact, it’s not just the Kingdom Tower. After the Kingdom Tower construction plan was announced, various cities followed up to build their own city landmarks.

Currently, Melbourne, the second largest city in Australasia, is making the fastest progress. At Arthur's request, the Melbourne City Government changed the Melbourne Building that was originally decided to be built into the National Gallery of Art in Melbourne. Although the height is far less than that of the Kingdom Building, it is not as high in terms of government attention and financial investment. Much inferior to the Kingdom Building.

Construction of the National Gallery of Art in Melbourne started in August 1930 and was not completed until mid-1933.

In terms of investment, the Melbourne City Government contributed 15 million Australian dollars and the government subsidized 15 million Australian dollars, with a total budget of 30 million Australian dollars.

Although it is not as good as the Kingdom Building, it is completely sufficient to build a landmark-level National Gallery of Art.

In addition, a landmark building will also be built in Wellington, New Zealand, but it is still under discussion.

The New Zealand region is quite special to Australasia, and the emotions of New Zealanders also need to be taken care of.

There is also another landmark building in Sydney, the very famous Sydney Opera House.

This building, which historically only started construction in 1959, was started 28 years ahead of schedule by Arthur.

I have to admit that the unique shape of the Sydney Opera House is still very attractive. This unique building in Australia has become famous in later generations and is one of the famous attractions.

However, Arthur is not a professional painter. Even though Arthur still has a certain impression of the historical Sydney Opera House, he is destined to be unable to perfectly reproduce the original version.

The existing design drawings of the Sydney Opera House are the final design draft produced by the government, under Arthur's order, inviting well-known designers at home and abroad to carry out relevant designs based on some of Arthur's requirements.

In general, it is not much different from the original Sydney Opera House, but there are slight differences in details.

Because most of the funds from the Sydney City Government have recently been used to build the Kingdom Building, the actual start of construction of the Sydney Opera House will have to wait until two years later.

In terms of investment, Arthur also attaches great importance to the Sydney Opera House. With a total investment of nearly A$52 million, the Sydney Opera House is currently the most expensive building of any landmark built in Australasia.

Of course, because the construction time is expected to be 5 years, the investment of 52 million Australian dollars is actually not much, just over 10 million Australian dollars per year.

Moreover, the Sydney Opera House is invested by three parties. In addition to the original government and the Sydney City Government, the royal family will also participate in the investment of the Sydney Opera House.

Among them, the royal family invested 22 million Australian dollars, which is expected to occupy 40% of the shares of the Sydney Opera House; the government invested 18 million Australian dollars, which is expected to occupy 30% of the shares of the Sydney Opera House; the remaining 12 million Australian dollars were invested by the Sydney Municipal Government, plus land It comes from the Sydney Municipal Government, so the Sydney Municipal Government can occupy 30% of the shares.

In addition to its nominal role as a venue for musical performances, the Sydney Opera House has many uses.

In addition to making Sydney tourism famous as a landmark, it can also serve as an attraction to increase Sydney's tourism revenue.

You know, the historical Sydney Opera House is one of the symbols of Australia. This building is also recognized as one of the seven wonders of the world in the 20th century, which is enough to prove the status of the Sydney Opera House in the hearts of Australians.

Now, although there are many landmark buildings to be built at the same time, the Sydney Opera House is still the most important one in Arthur's heart.

Arthur also saw the design drawings of the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House in this world covers an area larger than in history, reaching 0.3 hectares.

The estimated construction area is 88,888 square meters, which was specifically requested by Arthur. The original design was 88,000 square meters. Arthur said that five 8s were more pleasing to the eye, so he changed it to 88,888 square meters.

The core buildings of the entire opera house are a concert hall that can accommodate 3,250 spectators, an opera house that can accommodate 1,720 spectators, and a small theater that can accommodate 550 spectators.

In addition to these three relatively large buildings, the opera house also has a total of 920 exhibition halls, recording halls, bars and restaurants of various sizes, which can meet most of the needs of tourists.

It is worth mentioning that at Arthur's special request, these 920 rooms also include more than ten movie theaters used to play and promote Australasian movies.

The construction of such a huge building would have to wait until the middle of 1934, and the estimated completion time would not be until the end of 1939.

Because there is only one landmark building completed so far, the Kingdom Tower has attracted the attention of a large number of people at home and abroad.

November 1, 1931, the day the Kingdom Building was completed.

In addition to the news that this landmark building was successfully completed and opened to the public, Arthur's personal participation in the day's activities was also the reason why a large number of Australasians flocked to the event.

Unsurprisingly, the traffic in Sydney's urban area was blocked that day, and people could only walk to this building that could be seen from a long distance away.

This also depends on Arthur's emphasis on environmental governance. Even though Sydney has become the most developed and prosperous city in Australasia, the sanitary environment in Sydney's urban area is not too bad.

The shortcomings of prosperous cities in Europe are not so serious in Sydney at present. Although air pollution exists, it is within the controllable range.

After a series of speeches, Arthur stood up and pressed the button next to him.

For a moment, the lights in the entire Kingdom Building were turned on instantly, which also meant that the building, which had been under construction for more than a year, was finally successfully opened to the public.

People are quite curious about this unfamiliar building. In order to achieve the purpose of rejoicing with the people, under Arthur's order, the Kingdom Building can be visited free of charge for a week, and charges will start one week later.

Of course, the price is not too expensive. Each viewing ticket to the viewing level is only 1 Australian penny, which is 1% of 1 Australian dollar. (1 Australian dollar = 10 Australian shillings = 100 Australian pence)

It is worth mentioning that the lower viewing floor will be open to Sky Hotel residents and building users for free, which is also one of the means to attract investment and tourists.

As for the top viewing floor, although it is free, it is only open to approved hotel guests and building users as well as a small number of special personnel.

In other words, the highest level of appreciation cannot be bought with money, only power and status can be obtained.

In order to avoid congestion in the entire building, the number of visitors the building can receive every day is limited.

After all, a building like this does not make money from tourists, but from the real users of the building, that is, the tenants in the commercial district.

As the largest city in Australasia, it goes without saying that there are many companies based in Sydney.

Kingdom Tower’s users are naturally these companies. For these companies, moving their offices to the Kingdom Building is also an honor and status affirmation for them.

Arthur didn't stay too much at the Kingdom Building. After all, there was still a lot of traffic on the opening day.

After a brief visit to the top floor, Arthur went straight to the Sydney City Hall.

Sydney is a relatively special administrative region in Australasia. The highest government of the Sydney Territory is the municipal government, and the mayor of the Sydney Municipal Government is also the Governor of the Sydney Territory.

After all, the scope of Sydney territory is the entire city of Sydney. Whether it is the mayor or the territorial governor, the scope of their jurisdiction is actually the same.

After inspecting the work of the Sydney Municipal Government and giving some encouragement, Arthur returned to Fort St. Arthur.

However, when Arthur left, he also specifically asked the Sydney City Government to report the daily passenger flow of the Kingdom Building and the number of companies that have moved into the Kingdom Building after the Kingdom Building is open for free in the first week.

Although Arthur did not expect the Kingdom Building to repay its investment soon, after all, it was a landmark building that cost a lot of money to build, and it was impossible not to pay attention to it.

According to common sense, the Empire State Building built by Americans can become one of the most famous, popular and profitable buildings, and the Kingdom Building in Australasia is destined not to be much different.

Things turned out exactly as Arthur expected. A week later, the Sydney City Council reported to Arthur the situation at Kingdom Tower.

The first is passenger flow. The first free week has a lot of passenger flow. The daily passenger flow of Kingdom Tower is close to the set passenger flow limit.

After the introduction of fees, this phenomenon has not slowed down in any way. After all, the fee for the Kingdom Tower Observation Deck is indeed very cheap, it is only the income of an ordinary person for ten minutes.

What Arthur is most concerned about is the willingness of domestic and foreign companies to move into the Kingdom Building.

In fact, as early as the construction of Kingdom Tower, many companies had inquired about the future sales price and rent of Kingdom Tower.

Now that the Kingdom Building has been successfully opened, more companies are inquiring, and there is even an endless stream of people every day.

But considering that the Kingdom Building is located in the most prosperous city, the most prosperous street, and the most prosperous location in the entire country, it is natural that the price of the Kingdom Building commercial area is expensive.

The rent on the cheapest floor is close to AU$70,000 a year, and the sales price starts at AU$750,000.

Like later generations, this starting word is very important. Including various taxes and other fees, even the cheapest floor will cost more than 1 million Australian dollars. Few companies can afford to buy an entire floor of a building.

Because of this, most companies are focusing on leasing. Although the rent for a single floor is at least 70,000 Australian dollars per year, it is not without negotiation.

The time of leasing and the type of company also determine the final figure of the rent for each floor of the building.

Currently, there are only four floors of the building that are actually rented out, and they have been taken over by Royal Bank, Noble United Bank, Royal Relief Committee and Pharmaceutical Group.

Speaking of which, these four companies are all owned by their own people. Although it can contribute more than 80,000 Australian dollars in rent to the Kingdom Building every year, for Arthur, it is just a matter of left hand and right hand.

What's more, running the Kingdom Building every day also costs a lot of money. The money earned will also be shared between the government and the Sydney City Council.

For Arthur, if the Kingdom Building is to achieve real profitability, companies that are still on the sidelines must move in as soon as possible.

4200-word update is here, please vote for me and support me!