Tall & Urban News

Another Large Office Tower to be Built on Melbourne’s Collins Street

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Melbourne Photoshop
19 April 2019 | Melbourne, Australia

Charter Hall tapped Gensler to design an 80,000-square-meter office tower project on Melbourne’s Collins Street, based on the US-based architecture firm’s experiences designing workplaces for clients including Apple, Airbnb and Facebook.

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The appointment of Gensler’s London office, which worked in conjunction with local architecture firm Cox on the AU$1.5 billion (US$1.05 billion) project, did not necessarily mean Charter Hall was seeking to lure a tech tenant, but regional development manager Simon Stockfeld did not rule it out.

“We’re positioning for a range of tenants,” said Mr. Stockfeld. “This will work for a financial company, an advisory company or a tech company. This location, so close to Southern Cross Station, will be attractive to a range of tenants in the market.”

Charter Hall last week lodged plans for the two-stage premium office development it intends for the 555 Collins Street site it acquired in October and the adjacent 55 King Street site it has owned since 2016.

The first stage, a 35-level tower on the 555 Collins Street site, will be a 45,000 square meter, six-star Green Star, side-core building. Charter Hall’s wholesale Prime Office Fund (CPOF) will fund the AU$250 million (US$179 million) construction cost and own the asset. The new building will require the demolition of the current occupant, Enterprise House.

A builder is likely to be appointed by October, with construction scheduled for completion mid-2022.

Charter Hall has not yet set a timeframe for the construction of Stage 2, a 32-level tower on the 55 King Street site on which the state’s Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has a lease until 2022.

The 35,000 square meter building on that site will also have a side-core build adjacent to the side-core of 555 Collins, allowing the two towers to be constructed separately and subsequently joined by connecting walkways.

The ambitious plan on the 4620 square meter combined site seeks to tap a Melbourne office market currently experiencing record-low vacancy rates with an asset designed to meet the needs of a growing workforce of Millennial and Gen-Z employees.

The large architecture practice Gensler, with over 2,600 architects, designed the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, The New York Times Tower and the Hearst Tower in New York City,

For more on this story visit Commercial Real Estate.