Poly Australia to build Melbourne's first speculative office tower in 30 years
With Melbourne’s office vacancy rate at a historic low and 80 per cent of the city’s half a million square-metre development pipeline snapped up, market sentiment is understandably high.
So high that developer Poly Australia is pushing ahead with the construction of a 40,000-square-metre, A-grade office tower at 1000 La Trobe Street, Docklands, without an anchor tenant pre-committed to the project.
JLL Victoria’s senior director Ashley Buller said Poly Australia would be the first developer in nearly 30 years to speculatively build a freestanding commercial development.
“It’s completely unique to the commercial development space here in Melbourne,” he said.
“While there are 10 new buildings under construction in the CBD, there is minimal contiguous space remaining in these projects. 1000 La Trobe Street will be the only building in Melbourne which can provide ‘brand new’ large contiguous volumes of space in the CBD in 2021.”
Mr Buller is managing the property’s leasing campaign with Stuart Colquhoun, as well as Colliers International’s Edward Knowles and Shane Burn.
As few as 76,000 square metres of vacant prime office space is left in the Melbourne CBD market, according to Investa research. Yet net absorption of office stock is expected to increase by an average of 90,000 square metres annually until 2024.
“The current occupancy rate of Melbourne’s office leasing market affirms the need for the supply of commercial developments in the CBD and surrounds,” Poly Victoria executive director Steve Wang said.
He added that new developments incorporating the essential services and infrastructure for the modern worker was particularly appealing to tenants, as the traditional office precinct expanded from the city core to Docklands.
“It’s a considered design with connectivity at its core,” he said. “The space facilitates the ease between work, life and play, creating an environment which fosters a sense of community among tenants.”
Mr Knowles said that accessibility will be a plus for potential tenants, with the development next to Southern Cross station and the free-tram zone.
Set to be the first major tower in the Digital Harbour Precinct, the 23-storey building’s average floor plate will be 2100 square metres.
A 700-square-metre area will be dedicated to coworking and third spaces for tenants.
Food-and-beverage facilities, retail services and other amenities will make up the ground-floor tenancy mix, while an on-site gym and end-of-trip facilities will be on the second floor.
Construction of the development is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2019 and is due to be completed in 2021.
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