Robinson, an independent observer of the billions pouring into the precinct, points out one key feature about the funding in this revitalisation of Sydney CBD's golden mile:

"This time it's all been very private."

He is right. Very little taxpayer money is pushing this. Australia's global development giant Lendlease, AMP Capital and China's Wanda – owned by China's richest man Wang Jianlin – are taking the lead. There is a sudden awareness over what is a prime opportunity: transforming an ageing precinct into one that will stamp its authority as a world-class city rivalling London and New York in attracting new global talent and a new level of property investor.

The highest value project is held by Lendlease. Its $1.5 billion Circular Quay Office Tower will sit behind the Wanda One apartment and hotel development.

Lendlease's ‎national development director David Rolls understands how rare the opportunity is to participate in what is happening.

"The reality of Sydney CBD is that it is a peninsula – it's like Manhattan – so there are not too many opportunities to expand, unlike Melbourne."

"Rents have moved up which also makes it economical for you to think about knock-downs and new builds, and with new development the Sydney skyline will get all the benefits."


He agrees there's a lot of private effort going into this. "The city doesn't really have any government land opportunities left" – but he acknowledges the local Sydney City Council's director of planning Graham Jahn has been instrumental in negotiating for the best outcome. The council has given the big developers more height and more floor space but only in exchange for more public space, more amenity and more interconnectedness. And only if a proper design competition is undertaken.

Two-storey wharves are planned to service the ferry fleet. Supplied.

Rolls relates this revolutionary opening up of the precinct to that of the centre of London when archaic planning rules prevented new development (he recalls an ancient rule about only being allowed to build where you could not fire an arrow and hit the tower of London). Following recent deregulation some famously recognisable buildings have gone up: Norman Foster's Gherkin, the Walkie Talkie building, and the Cheesegrater.

Graham Jahn says the precinct south of Circular Quay's Alfred Street (north of Alfred is state planning controlled) was not exactly zoned industrial, "but the planning controls there were underperforming".

"They were a jigsaw and you could see a need for real change," Mr Jahn says.

He says the changes in planning controls and the responses to them have been "unprecedented" and it's all come at no cost to the ratepayer.

Mirvac unveiled plans for an office building at 200 George Street. Phillip Hayson

"Generally other cities have had to underwrite development in order to see significant development take place, but we have only used the planning controls and now we are getting metres and metres of public space."


"The will also be a significant increase in retail – I can't say how incredibly different it will be."

Getting the planning right can be the line between success and failure.

One developer in the precinct mentions how they saw Potsdamer Platz, in the centre of Berlin, when it first opened. There was great hope of the zone becoming a place to work and live and shop but 10 years later the developer visited it and noticed there was an emptiness, a disconnected feeling about the place. Even the rents had not grown as they had been predicted to grow.

Foster + Partners will design the Circular Quay Tower. John Marmaras

"I think they just got the dimensions and the planning wrong. The places are too internalised."

But the supply and quality of apartments that are headed for Circular Quay is likely to reinforce the planning principals of connectedness. A train line has bisected the zone since 1956. A new light rail to south eastern suburbs is about to open. And then there are all the ferry services.

Corelogic's Eliza Owens says that two major residential developments at Circular Quay, Landream's Opera Residences and Wanda's Residential Tower at the Gold Fields House site, represent about $400 million in construction invested by Chinese consortiums – the biggest of all foreign buyers for luxury apartments in Australia and by far the most hungry for the ideal Australian lifestyle.

Already Opera Residences has reportedly received $26 million for an off the plan sale of its penthouse apartment.


Between the two Chinese developers, AMP Capital has sold all 106 apartments in the three luxury Loftus Lane buildings it is developing as part of its Quay Quarter Sydney precinct at Circular Quay.

AMP Capital chief operating officer, real estate Louise Mason says that "connectivity is critical". From Circular's Quay's Museum of Contemporary Art to the opera house to AMP's site to Lendlease and Wanda there needs to be a logical path.

"There isn't anything quite like what we're doing at Circular Quay in the rest of the world. Whilst you can look at Toronto around the waterfront or Copenhagen City Centre with its light rail plans, nothing quite compares to the compact site we are working with and the mix of elements that need to work together in such a tight area to connect people, amenities and transport."

Beyond the major commercial and residential developments at the base of Circular Quay, there are also several upgrades commissioned by state government authorities. Furthermore there is the transformation of George Street with a new light rail running all the way south.

For Astrolabe's director for strategy Michael Comninos the success is already clear from the level of private investment over that from government.

"You have got people quite removed saying how unique all this development is considering they are all separate, organic private sector investments with no government investment, which is quite interesting given governments usually need to incentives these big new city renewals."