Chapter 787: Kingdom Building Completed
In fact, since the beginning of Paraguay's counterattack, Australasia has not interfered too much with the actions of the Paraguayan army.
The officers sent at the beginning have also been transformed into a military observation group. Anyway, by observing the war between the two countries, they can also learn something.
Australasian side is constantly estimating the war potential of Bolivia and Paraguay.
The so-called war potential is actually the manpower, material resources and financial resources that the two countries can still consume.
In fact, it is not just Australasia, it is likely that Britain and France are also estimating to determine the time to end the war.
The reality is so cruel. In fact, Britain and Australasia have long had the strength to end this war, and can also reduce many casualties in Paraguay.
But the problem is that doing so will not benefit Britain and Australasia at all. This is why neither of the two countries 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 make enough profits in this war.
Even if Bolivia, which France supports, is defeated in the end, France can still earn certain benefits from Bolivia's large amount of loans, and generally speaking, it will not necessarily lose money.
This is actually the most fundamental difference between the great powers and small countries. The great powers are the chess players of the world order. For the chess players, the collision between the chess pieces will not hurt themselves, at most it is just a defeat that makes them lose face.
In fact, judging from the comprehensive national strength of Bolivia and Paraguay, the comprehensive national strength of the two countries has been consumed a lot after the war lasted for such a long time.
It can be predicted that the war will end this year or next year, and the two countries will not have the manpower to participate in the war later.
It is not important for Arthur when to end this war. Anyway, through the previous actions, Australasia has ensured its own interests.
When the war ends depends on the actions of the British, and Arthur does not care.
Arthur's eyes are still on the domestic construction. There is something very important for Arthur, that is, the Kingdom Building in Sydney is about to be completed.
As the tallest building in the world in the eyes of the Sydney City Government, the construction and completion of the Kingdom Building have attracted a lot of attention from Australasians.
To be precise, the construction of the Kingdom Building started on May 25, 1930, and the estimated completion time was November 1, 1931.
Such a short construction time seems a bit exaggerated. After all, this is not an ordinary building. This is the tallest building in the world in the true sense. (It is not exaggerated in fact. The Empire State Building in the United States was built in only 410 days.)
Because of such a fast construction speed, domestic and foreign people are very curious about this building, which is known as the tallest building in the world. Many domestic and foreign media rushed to Sydney, waiting for the completion of this skyscraper, and rushed to enter the interior of the Kingdom Building to take pictures.
In fact, the reason why the construction time of this building is so short is mostly due to the guarantee of various government policies.
As one of the key projects in the big construction, the Kingdom Building is not just a landmark for the Sydney City Government, but also an opportunity to completely make Sydney famous.
Because of this, the Sydney City Government hired excellent design and construction teams from all over the world, and worked overtime to complete the building within the expected time frame.
As the monarch of Australasia, Arthur would naturally not miss the celebration of the completion of the Kingdom Building.
In fact, it is not just the Kingdom Building. After the announcement of the construction plan of the Kingdom Building, various cities have followed up to build their own city landmarks.
Currently, Melbourne, the second largest city in Australasia, has the fastest progress. At Arthur's request, the Melbourne City Government changed the Melbourne Building, which was originally planned to be built, to the Melbourne National Art Gallery. Although the height is far less than that of the Kingdom Building, it is not much inferior to the Kingdom Building in terms of government attention and capital investment.
The construction of the Melbourne National Art Gallery started in August 1930 and was completed in mid-1933.
In terms of investment, the Melbourne City Government invested 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 enough to build a landmark-level national art gallery.
In addition, a landmark building will be built in Wellington, New Zealand, but it is still under discussion.
New Zealand is quite special to Australasia, and the emotions of New Zealanders must be taken care of.
There is also another landmark building in Sydney, the very famous Sydney Opera House.
This building, which was only started in 1959, was started 28 years earlier by Arthur.
It has to be admitted that the unique shape of the Sydney Opera House is still very attractive. This unique building in Australia has a great reputation in later generations and is one of the famous attractions.
However, Arthur is not a professional painter. Even if Arthur still has a certain impression of the Sydney Opera House in history, it is destined to be impossible to perfectly reproduce the original version.
The existing design drawings of the Sydney Opera House were the design drafts finally obtained by the government under Arthur's order, inviting well-known designers at home and abroad to carry out relevant designs according to some of Arthur's requirements.
It is roughly the same as the original Sydney Opera House, but there are slight differences in details.
Because most of the funds of the Sydney City Government have been used to build the Kingdom Building recently, the actual construction of the Sydney Opera House will not start until two years later.
In terms of investment, Arthur also attaches great importance to the Sydney Opera House. The total investment of the Sydney Opera House is close to 52 million Australian dollars, which is the most expensive building among all the landmarks built in Australasia.
Of course, because the construction time is expected to be 5 years, the investment of 52 million Australian dollars is not much, only a little 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 account for 40% of the shares of the Sydney Opera House; the government invested 18 million Australian dollars, which is expected to account for 30% of the shares of the Sydney Opera House; the remaining 12 million Australian dollars is invested by the Sydney City Government, and the land comes from the Sydney City Government, so the Sydney City Government can occupy 30% of the shares.
In addition to the nominal performance of musicals, the Sydney Opera House has many other uses.
In addition to being a landmark to promote Sydney's tourism, it can also be used as a tourist attraction to increase Sydney's tourism revenue.
You know, the Sydney Opera House in history 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 many landmark buildings are being built at the same time, the Sydney Opera House is still the most important one in Arthur's heart.
Arthur has also seen the design drawings of the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House in this world covers an area larger than in history, reaching 03 hectares.
The estimated building area is 88,888 square meters, which was specifically requested by Arthur. The original design was 88,000 square meters, and Arthur said that five 8s were more pleasing to the eye, so it was changed 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 920 rooms of varying sizes, including exhibition halls, recording halls, bars and restaurants, 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 a dozen movie theaters to play and promote Australasian movies.
Such a huge building will not start construction until mid-1934, and it is expected to be completed by the end of 1939.
Because there is only one landmark building completed, the Kingdom Building 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 will personally participate in the activities of the day, which is also the reason why a large number of Australasians flocked to it.
As expected, the traffic in downtown Sydney was blocked that day, and people could only walk to this building that could be seen from a long distance.
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 downtown Sydney is not too bad.
The defects of prosperous cities in Europe are not so serious in Sydney at present. Although there is air pollution, it is also within the controllable range.
After a series of speeches, Arthur stood up and pressed the button beside him.
For a moment, the lights of the entire Kingdom Building were turned on instantly, which also meant that this building, which had been built for more than a year, was finally successfully opened to the public.
For this unfamiliar building, the public is still quite curious. In order to achieve the purpose of celebrating with the people, under Arthur's order, the Kingdom Building can be visited for free within a week, and will start charging after a week.
Of course, the price of the fee will not be too expensive. Each ticket to the viewing floor costs 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 floors will be open to Sky Hotel guests and building users for free, which is also one of the means to attract foreign investment and tourists.
As for the top viewing floor, although it is free, it is only open to approved hotel guests and building users and a small number of special personnel.
In other words, the top viewing floor cannot be bought with money, only power and status can be obtained.
In order to avoid congestion in the entire building, the number of tourists received by the building every day is limited.
After all, such a building does not make money from tourists, but from the real users of the building, that is, the tenants in the commercial area.
As the largest city in Australasia, it goes without saying that there are many companies stationed in Sydney.
The users of the Kingdom Building are naturally these companies. For these companies, moving their offices to the Kingdom Building is also a kind of honor and status affirmation for them.
Arthur did not stay in the Kingdom Building for too long, 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 Government.
Sydney is a special administrative region in Australasia. The highest government in the Sydney Territory is the City Government, and the mayor of the Sydney City Government is also the Governor of the Sydney Territory.
After all, the scope of the Sydney Territory is the entire Sydney City. 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 City Government and encouraging it a little, Arthur returned to Fort St. Arthur.
However, when Arthur left, he also specifically instructed the Sydney City Government to report the daily passenger flow of the Kingdom Building and the number of companies that moved into the Kingdom Building after the Kingdom Building was open for free in the first week.
Although Arthur did not expect the Kingdom Building to pay back soon, 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 well-known, popular and profitable buildings, and the Kingdom Building in Australasia is destined to be not much different.
Things are exactly as Arthur expected. A week later, the Sydney City Government reported the situation of the Kingdom Building to Arthur.
First of all, there is the passenger flow. There was a lot of passenger flow in the first week of free admission, and the passenger flow of the Kingdom Building was close to the set passenger flow limit every day.
After the switch to charging, this phenomenon did not slow down at all. After all, the fee for the observation deck of the Kingdom Building is really cheap, just 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 when the Kingdom Building was built, many companies had consulted about the future sales price and rent of the Kingdom Building.
Now that the Kingdom Building has been successfully opened, there are more companies consulting, and even 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 whole country, it is natural that the commercial area of the Kingdom Building is expensive.
The rent of the cheapest floor is close to 70,000 Australian dollars a year, and the selling price is as high as 750,000 Australian dollars.
Like later generations, the word "starting" is very important. Adding various taxes and other fees, even the cheapest floor has a selling price of more than 1 million Australian dollars, and few companies can afford a whole floor of the building.
Because of this, most companies have set their sights on renting out. Although the annual rent for a single floor is at least 70,000 Australian dollars, it is not impossible to negotiate.
The time of renting and the type of company also determine the final figure of the rent for each floor of the building.
Currently, only four floors of the building have been rented out, which are taken by the Royal Bank, the Noble United Bank, the Royal Relief Committee and the Pharmaceutical Group.
Speaking of which, all four companies are their own people. Although they can contribute more than 80,000 Australian dollars in rent to the Kingdom Building every year, it is just a transfer from one hand to the other for Arthur.
What's more, the daily operation of the Kingdom Building is also a huge expense. The money earned has to be shared by the government and the Sydney City Government.
For Arthur, if he wants to make the Kingdom Building truly profitable, he must let those companies that are still waiting and watching move in as soon as possible.
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