Circular Quay

Royal Caribbean has stolen a march on its rivals, including Carnival, taking a 75-year lease on an island in Vanuatu to offer passengers a private destination on its South Pacific cruises.

Customer relationship giant Salesforce will anchor the building of Sydney’s tallest office tower with the Lendlease development at Circular Quay, the first of a wave of new projects being anchored by hi-tech tenants.

Property group Dexus has secured a site for Sydney’s next super tower just one block back from Circular Quay by picking up a building from Canada’s Brookfield for a reported $190 million.

The mid-market has emerged as the sweet spot in office leasing at the start of this year but big requirements from banks looking to split their operations and from flexible space groups could see larger deals struck later this year.

Sydney’s Circular Quay is a step closer to a major overhaul with the Berejiklian government quietly shortlisting rival consortiums — one led by Lendlease and the other by Plenary Group — for a $2 billion overhaul of the ferry wharves precinct.

Sydney’s Circular Quay is bracing for a wave of new office developments, with fund manager AMP Capital locking in accountants Deloitte for a major precommitment in its new $3 billion tower and rival Lendlease drawing interest from the Commonwealth Bank’s wealth arm for its project.

The multi-billion-dollar redevelopment of Sydney’s Circular Quay is ­gathering steam, with AMP ­Capital in pole position to secure ­accounting firm Deloitte as an ­anchor tenant of its proposed $3 billion Quay Quarter Tower.

The Mirvac Group has entered the race to build a $1 billion-plus office tower on the best block at Sydney’s Circular Quay, with the move pitting it against rival Lendlease, which is planning a $1.5 billion skyscraper on the block.

Companies linked to one of China’s most controversial businessmen, billionaire Huang Xiangmo, have outlaid more than $1 billion to buy two major development sites from an arm of troubled Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.