An artist's impression of the landmark Gold Fields House at Circular Quay, Sydney.

An office block will be turned into apartments with arguably the best views of Sydney Harbour after it was snapped up by China's DalianWandaGroup for $425 million.

The sale of Gold Fields House, at 1 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, comes as more Chinese investors are tipped to enter the Australian market in the coming year. They are cashed up and very large insurance and pension funds that like this country's transparent regulations and ease of doing deals.

CBRE head of research Australia Stephen McNabb said investors are expected to remain risk averse and this will ensure that, in most cases, there will continue to be a wide spread between the yields that can be achieved for prime versus secondary assets until there are signs of stronger economic growth.

It is expected the Goldfields site will be redeveloped into upmarket apartments. The harbourside building, controlled by Blackstone and a group of pension funds, was sold by JLL andCBRE.

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Another 1960s-era building nearby, 275 George Street, is understood to be close to being bought by Charter Hall.More large-ticket sales are due to be completed in the last business week of 2014.

Neil Brookes,Knight Frank's head of capital markets Asia Pacific, says investors are shifting their focus towards sustainable returns in the long term.

"The key factors for Chinese investors are the policy push from the Chinese government to diversify into other countries; a softening domestic market; and the pull from higher returns achievablein overseas markets.Australia, the US and the UK are the top three markets most Chinese investors are looking at.

"We saw five times as much capital outflow from China into these three markets in 2013 alone compared to the previous year. We expect the transaction volumes from Chinese investors into these three markets this year will match or even exceed that of last year.

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Gold Fields House sells for $425 million

HOLLY HILL From its beginnings nearly 100 years ago, the First National Bank of South Carolina has held strong to its Holly Hill roots.

On Dec. 18, FNB held the official grand opening of its new home office at 801 Gilway St.

FNB board member Dan Folk said, Ive been on the board for more than 25 years. Theres a lot of pride and family connection since my grandfather and father both served as past presidents.

Folk added, My dad used to take me to the old bank building when I was a little kid, so this bank has been part of my life since as long as I can remember.

FNB Vice President and cashier John L. Wiggins III said, Were enjoying our new building.

Anytime you move into a new building, its a proud day, Wiggins said.

Wiggins and FNB Senior Vice President John Woodie West have been part of the construction process from start to finish.

We started on it in 2012 and have been involved with it since then. We broke ground in March 2013, he said.

It officially opened for business in late April 2014.

While the building was under construction, bank employees and customers continued to use its facility that was constructed in 1975.

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A proud day: First National Bank of S.C. opens new home office in Holly Hill

If the construction cranes towering over both sides of Ohio 129 entering Butler County are any indication, the next wave of development in this hot spot between Cincinnati and Dayton has arrived.

Commercial development activity in Butler County is rising back to pre-recession levels, and a lot of its happening at the same time thanks to once-in-a-lifetime projects such as the mega shopping and office complex Liberty Center and a proton therapy center being built at Cincinnati Childrens Liberty Campus for cancer treatment.

What youre seeing right now is the commercial response to years of residential development and growth, said Chris Wunnenberg, director of development for Schumacher Construction Dugan Inc., a West Chester Twp.-based property development and management company.

More than 3,000 non-residential building permits were approved through the end of November across Butler County townships, Trenton and New Miami. A year ago, 2,945 permits were approved, according to the countys development department.

Commercial activity is also trending higher over recent post-recession years in Fairfield, Hamilton and Middletown.

Right now it means new investment, new job opportunities, new shopping opportunities and better health care options, Wunnenberg said.

For example, five new hotels are in various stages of construction along the Interstate 75 corridor in West Chester and Liberty townships and Sharonville. A sixth hotel, Hilton Garden Inn, was the first to open in September.

Other construction started this year includes two outdoor sporting goods stores Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas Inc. in West Chester Twp.; the Artspace Lofts in downtown Hamilton, which includes 42 artist apartments on top of commercial space; a health rehabilitation center Covenant Village of Middletown; and an all new auto supply plant in Monroe for UGN Inc.

Meanwhile, Miami Universitys rural Oxford campus has turned into a construction zone during the last five years as officials have renovated or demolished dozens of buildings. More than $400 million has been spent since 2009, with more work to go, said David Creamer, Miamis vice president for finance and business services.

New business announcements signal what else could come. Business projects announced for next year that could lead to more new construction include a significant forthcoming announcement from The Christ Hospital Health Network, plans for a natural-gas fired power plant in Middletown and the second phase to add more retail space at The Streets of West Chester.

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Butler County riding boom development cycle after the bust

One Harmon Plaza in Secaucus is getting several new tenants, commitments that mark more than 46,000 square feet of leasing activity since the property changed hands in February, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

In the first deal, eAppeals Commercial, which specializes in medical billing and revenue management for hospitals and large physician practices, leased 7,025 square feet at the property, where Cushman & Wakefield is the exclusive leasing agent.

The Hollywood, Fla.-based company relocated its regional operation to the Harmon Cove office building from Clifton, where its landlord was Mountain Development Corp., which acquired One Harmon Plaza in partnership with PCCP LLC earlier this year for $11.5 million.

PKB Engineering has leased 2,401 square feet at One Harmon Plaza, relocating from Lyndhurst. And Noble Construction Group, which moved to Secaucus from Jersey City last year, is expanding its space by an additional 2,665 square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The new owners of One Harmon Plaza landed two other tenants at the 192,000-square-foot class A office building earlier this year, with Penn Jersey Advance Inc. taking 22,000 square feet and FolioDynamix taking 10,500 square feet.

One of the property's anchor tenants is The Jersey Journal, which moved there in January. Penn Jersey Advance was a company formed after a reorganization at Advance Publications Inc., parent of The Star-Ledger and The Jersey Journal.

Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the remaining vacant space in the building, including one contiguous block of 48,000 square feet with Hackensack River views.

Email: moss@northjersey.com

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Secaucus office building gets new tenants

Prominent Los Angeles developer Robert F. Maguire III has found a partner to invest in construction of a new office building in Playa Vista, which is now one of the hottest real estate markets in the state.

San Francisco real estate investment firm DivcoWest formed a joint venture with Maguire to own, operate and further develop the Water's Edge office campus in the Playa Vista neighborhood near Marina del Rey.

Maguire led development of several of L.A.'s best-known office buildings in the 1980s and '90s including U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest structure in Southern California. He has held part interest in Water's Edge at the intersection of Lincoln and Jefferson boulevards since he erected two buildings there in 2002.

In August, Maguire said he was looking for a partner who could help fund the construction of a third building, to be called WE3.

Terms of the joint venture were not disclosed, but Maguire said the partnership has the resources to spend nearly $70 million constructing WE3. He hopes to begin work by the middle of next year after planning is complete and city approvals are secured.

"I think it will be a real trophy project," Maguire said. "We have got to get hammering nails."

The preliminary design by architect Zoltan Pali of Studio Pali Fekete Architects calls for a vivid blue-and-red four-story building containing about 150,000 square feet.

Playa Vista is a planned community on the site of 20th century business mogul Howard Hughes' aviation company. It has thousands of residents, and offices there have become a strong draw for technology and entertainment firms.

This month Web giant Google bought 12 acres at Playa Vista where it can build as much as 900,000 square feet of new office or studio space. Competitor Yahoo Inc. is expected to lease about 130,000 square feet of office space at Playa Vista in a separate deal.

DivcoWest has been looking to get into Playa Vista for more than two years, said Michael Provost, director of acquisitions.

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Maguire partners with DivcoWest on Playa Vista development

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says the city will co-operate with the RCMP's criminal investigation involving the new police headquarters, which was launched after an audit of the building projectprovided enough evidence for a full probe.

The Mounties have been going in and out of Caspian Construction onMcGillivrayBoulevard since about noon Wednesday.

Caspian isthe main contractor involved in the conversion ofthe former Canada Post building on Graham Avenue into the Winnipeg Police Service's new HQ, which has gone $75 million over budget.

At one point, plainclothes officers emerged from the company's office with at least two computers.

According to RCMP, the police headquarters investigation began after the Manitoba government referred three audits to police in August for review.

Police search the offices of Caspian Projects, the company working on the new Winnipeg police headquarters building, on Wednesday. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC)

Investigators from the RCMP's federal, serious and organized crime units have been working on two separate reviews: one involving the WPS headquarters and another involving Winnipeg Fire Paramedic stations.

"The RCMP have completed a review of the forensic audit regarding the construction of the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters and this is now considered a full investigation. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic stations file is still under review," according to a news release.

RCMP say theirexecution of the search warrant "at a local business"on Wednesdayis related to the investigation, but they would not release further details.

Bowman told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the Mounties must be allowed to carry out their investigation, andthe city promises full co-operation.

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RCMP search office of firm building new Winnipeg police HQ

A groundbreaking ceremony marked the appointment of the main contractor to deliver a flagship office building in Wirral Waters.

Eric Wright Construction of Bamber Bridge is now on site in Birkenhead and the 11 million Tower Wharf scheme is due for completion in October 2015.

The building, which is expected to provide accommodation for around 800 new jobs, is the first of its kind to be started within the Enterprise Zone, and follows the start of work on a new campus for Wirral Metropolitan College across the road.

Karl Bergh, managing director of Longmeadow Estates who are building the new development, said: We are extremely pleased to have Eric Wright Construction on board with this project given the companys outstanding track record and well-earned reputation.

The local authority has been extremely helpful throughout the planning and pre-commencement process, and we are also grateful for the support of the European Regional Development Fund, and the Homes and Communities Agency, who were the former landowners.

Its a very exciting scheme for us. We have done other office and commercial developments, but this is our biggest project to date.

Wirral Waters: View from Tower Road

Longmeadow Estates has previously delivered schemes for Magenta Living and Merseyside Estates Ltd, as well as local Birkenhead-based call centre business, The Contact Company.

The Tower Wharf project will see construction of a four-storey office building comprising 48,000 sq ft of on what is currently a cleared but partly contaminated site.

The development was approved by Wirral council in the summer.

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Wirral Waters development: contractor appointed ahead of groundbreaking ceremony

This aerial photograph shows the city-owned Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and G.Wiz Science Museum, bottom left and center; the vacant former Sarasota Quay property, far right; and the Hyatt Regency and Condomium by the Bay, bottom right. Other property owned and controlled by the city of Sarasota extends further north.

SARASOTA - Downtown Sarasotas construction boom will continue well into 2015, the result of newly unveiled plans that include another luxury condominium tower and the first new office building in eight years.

In the larger of the two developments, the Ronto Group of Naples plans to build an 18-story condo tower between Gulf Stream and South Palm avenues, investing at least $20 million to compete in an increasingly crowded market for new residential units.

Veteran local developer Mark Kauffman, meanwhile, is preparing to construct a $4.7 million, four-story office building called Centerplex at Ringling Boulevard and Golf Street.

For Kauffman, whose properties include Courthouse Centre and the Hollywood 20/Main Plaza complex downtown, the offices become the latest in a series of new projects in or around downtown.

He already is building Payne Park Plaza, a $1.5 million office and retail development on South Washington Boulevard, near Morrill Street.

The three projects join a post-recession resurgence in downtown construction, with condos, hotels and retail space sprouting from the business district to the bayfront.

Ronto Group plans 17 units on a one-third-acre site called Echelon on Palm, executive vice president and co-owner Anthony Solomon said Tuesday.

While a number of new condos are coming online downtown and on nearby barrier islands, Solomon says demand is sufficient for more.

The economy is doing a lot better, he said. People are looking for new design and new product, and its a good time to launch something.

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Plans unveiled for 18-story condo tower in Sarasota

Perth's already oversupplied commercial property market is set to swell to peak levels if oil and gas giant Woodside signs up as the anchor tenant for a planned new CBD office tower.

That's the finding of property forecasting company BIS Shrapnel after it examined Perth's inner city market, with almost 160,000 square metres of refurbished or new office space due for completion over the next calendar year.

If Woodside becomes the drawcard for a 55,000 square metre office tower at 98 Mounts Bay Road, the CBD vacancy rate will peak at a whopping 23 per cent in 2018.

And the vacancy rate will likely stay in double digits until at least 2021 if Chevron pushes ahead with another major office building of about 70,000 square metres at Elizabeth Quay around the end of this decade.

While almost two thirds of the space to be created next year has already been snapped up, these tenants will create a void behind them as they relocate from their current buildings.

Accordingly, BIS Shrapnel has forecast flat to negative net absorption of CBD office space between now and 2018.

"There will not be anywhere near enough demand to absorb all the office space due to come onto the market," the company said.

"The Perth CBD office market does not need more major office developments.

"Even if Woodside and Chevron elect not to underwrite their respective office towers, it will take the CBD office market until the end of the decade to recover from the oversupply created by projects already locked in."

Senior project manager Lee Walker said resources sector investment - a key driver of jobs growth, including office employment - had only just begun to slump.

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Perth's bloated CBD office supply worsens

Lawyer Renato Bondal files a second plunder complaint for alleged rigged bidding and overpricing of the Makati Science High School building

MANILA, Philippines Survey frontrunner Vice President Jejomar Binay is facing a second plunder charge before the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged overpriced P1.33 billion Makati Science High School building.

Already pending before the anti-graft office is the plunder complaint involving the Makati City Hall parking building whose price tag amounted to P1.2 billion.

Lawyer Renato Bondal, who lost to Binays son, Jejomar "Junjun" in the 2013 Makati mayoral race, filed Tuesday a second plunder complaint against the father and son tandem and several Makati councilors for the alleged rigged bidding and overpricing of the Makati Science High School building.

Included in the charge are officers of Hilmarcs Construction Corporation, which was also the contractor of the Makati parking building.

Like the Makati parking building, construction of the 10-story school building began in several phases starting 2007.

"This school building has become the most expensive school building in the entire country, if not the entire world, and the Binays, and their minions and compliant, city councilors, members of the school board, and other city government officials should be held responsible," the complaint said.

Overpriced?

Citing cost estimates from the National Statistics Office and David Landon and Shea guideline, construction of the same type of building should cost only from P147 million to P470 million, or an overprice of at least P862 million to more than P1 billion.

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2nd plunder case filed vs Binays