Justice comes to former Qantas building on Melbourne's Franklin Street
The Victorian government’s Department of Justice & Regulation and Carlton Justice Service Centre will move into the former Qantas headquarters at 50 Franklin Street in Melbourne after striking a lease on the building that changed hands late last year.
In November, the 11 strata owners of the 18-level office tower combined to sell their building to listed investor and developer Lian Beng for $51.5 million, making the third acquisition in Melbourne for the Singaporean company.
Colliers International’s director of Office Leasing, Edward Knowles, negotiated the 10-year lease in what he said was “the low-to-mid $500” gross per square metre range after call centre operator Salmat vacated it in February.
“To then release the whole building in this time frame attests to the current strength of the Melbourne office leasing market,” Mr Knowles said.
The new tenants will move into the 11,500-square-metre building at end of this year. They are likely to increase the base building’s NABERS energy rating from 1.5 stars to three-plus stars throughout the tenancy term.
Melbourne’s office vacancy rate is tight. It stood at 6.5 per cent in the Property Council of Australia’s most recent Office Market Report and could go even lower before the market is faced with a flood of new supply around 2020.
CBD stock is forecast to grow by 18,939 square metres over the second half of 2017, 92,400 sq m in 2018, and a significant 377,600 sq m from 2019 on.
Last year Lian Beng acquired an ageing St Kilda Road apartment complex and has since submitted plans for a 19-level residential tower with 170 apartments.
The group’s first acquisition in Melbourne was in June last year when it acquired the iconic Newspaper House on Collins Street for $25 million.
The six-level sandstone building at 247 Collins Street, which features a mural on its facade commissioned by Sir Keith Murdoch, was also bought vacant.
