China’s poly group to begin building a$300m Sydney Tower

Chinese conglomerate and property heavyweight China Poly Group Corporation has hired Australia-listed construction company Watpac to begin construction of its A$300 million office tower in central Sydney, according to the Australian local media.

Located on 210-220 George St along the city’s iconic Circular Quay, the project is Poly’s first commercial development in Australia, and the construction agreement comes more than two years after the company purchased a pair of aging office towers on the site for A$160 million.

The A-grade development, designed by London-based architecture firm Grimshaw, aims to be on a par with AMP Capital’s nearby Quay Quarter Tower and with Lendlease’s Circular Quay Tower.

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The project is also just two minutes walk from One Circular Quay, a Sydney project which mainland commercial developer Dalian Wanda Group sold to its compatriots at Yuhu Group as part of an A$1.13 billion deal closed in January of this year.

Poly’s new tower will feature about 16,000 square metres of office space and 1,000 square metres of George Street-facing retail, with 10 podium floors and 15 tower floors. The podium level is connected to George Street through external terraces, in what the building’s designer says is a bridge between the workplace and the streetscape.

Watpac said it would work closely with the Chinese state-owned company and the design team to plan, manage and organize the project.

The construction service company is responsible for the initial stage of construction. The main construction contract is said to be awarded later this year.

Managing director of Poly Australia, Arthur Wang, praised Watpac for consistently building high-quality properties, saying that Poly Australia would cooperate with Watpac on more projects in the future.

Poly’s purchase of the pair of office buildings in 2016 was a windfall for local investment group Anton Capital and Goldman Sachs which managed to turn an almost 60 percent profit on the properties approximately one year after buying them from Mirvac Group for just under A$100 million in 2015.

The commercial project follows a series of Australian residential projects by Poly, including the 67-lot Grove Place project in the Sydney suburb of Werrington and the Claremont Manor project in Melbourne.

Ref : Property Report