Restaurateur Chris Lucas to bring midas touch to $1b Cbus office tower

Mr Lucas said his collaboration with Cbus Property at 435 Bourke Street stretched back more than two years.

“My condition to participating was to be involved [early on] in the design process and to have a seat at the table when conceptualising this development, and they got that,” Mr Lucas told The Australian Financial Review.

“You have to work with like-minded developers who share the same vision, which Cbus Property did.”

This vision, Mr Lucas explained, is that good food and well-run outlets are crucial to creating long-term value for tenants, landlords and investors.

“At 80 Collins Street and 101 Collins Street, the feedback from the tenant community is that they can’t imagine coming to the building if it did not have the great restaurant amenity.

“The proof is in the pudding. More workers want to go to these types of buildings.”

By comparison, he said areas like Melbourne’s Docklands battled high retail vacancy rates because of “very poorly executed amenity, poor design and no sense of community”.

“We’re trying to avoid those mistakes [at 435 Bourke Street]. This project is a big game changer for the midtown [western end] of Melbourne,” Mr Lucas said.

“Architecturally, it’s a quite stunning, beautiful buildings, which is not always the case [with office towers]. They’ve done a great job.”

Due to be completed in 2026, the 48-level building is so far only 30 per cent pre-committed, with the Commonwealth Bank taking 15,000 sq m and law firm Baker Mackenzie a further 3,600 sq m.

But with very little else due to be completed in two years’ time, Cbus Property is banking on design features such as a unique “solar skin” that will generate 20 per cent of base building energy requirements and the creation of “destination” dining experiences to ensure it is fully leased on completion.

Cbus Property chief Adrian Pozzo said its collaboration with Mr Lucas would create restaurants that will reinvigorate midtown Melbourne and “deliver an exceptional user experience to support our future customers”.

“Cbus Property and Chris Lucas have taken an incredibly collaborative approach to designing the restaurant fitouts to ensure they are wholistically aligned with 435 Bourke Street’s inherent focus on sustainability,” Mr Pozzo said.

Mr Lucas, who is famous for Asian fusion eateries like Chin Chin and Kisume on Flinders Lane, said he was not trying to replicate these sorts of establishments at 435 Bourke Street.

“We’re bringing new brands and concepts to a commercial and retail end of town,” he said.

“We have identified gaps in the market for these types of eateries in that part of the city.”

One of the restaurants will be down a laneway, while the other will be on Bourke Street, not far from the hustle and bustle of Bourke Street Mall.

“We’ve designed the restaurants so they don’t feel like they are part of the tower, but are freestanding buildings at the base of the tower,” Mr Lucas said.

“We’re trying to make the restaurant and cafe feel quite separate from the corporate component. We don’t want it to feel as if you are walking into an office building, This will make it more attractive for people to come visit the site,” he said.

Mr Lucas said the restaurants would be pitched at the “bistro-brasserie level” and each will include three private dining rooms to cater for the corporate tenant community upstairs.

“Our dining rooms at 80 Collins Street are the busiest in Melbourne. They are booked out for lunch and dinner every day. Why pay for your own kitchen space and hire your own chefs when you can go down and eat in a world-class restaurant?”

The restaurants will also be aligned with the sustainability focus of the tower, incorporating electric-only appliances, Mr Lucas said.