Open wide: HCF to open dental clinic on Collins Street
Australia’s largest not-for-profit health fund, HCF, will open its first Victorian dental centre on Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD, after striking a circa $500,000-a-year leasing deal.
The dental centre will be spread across three levels at 410 Collins Street – between William and Queen Street – in an area of Collins Street that is being activated by major projects, including Cbus Property’s $1.25 billion Colins Arch development across the road at 447 Collins Street.
HCF will replace China Construction Bank with its tenancy, part of a growing trend of retail services businesses securing major retail footprints on Collins Street including Bendigo Bank at the Block Court and the new Mercedes Me Cafe and Bank of Melbourne centre in the retail development at the base of Rialto Tower.
The HCF Dental Centre will occupy three levels – basement, ground floor and first floor – on a long-term lease. The 12-storey office block built in 1957 is owned by a number of Melbourne private investors.
The lease was negotiated by Zelman Ainsworth, head of retail leasing in Melbourne for CBRE, who said it was one of the biggest retail leasing deals struck on Collins Street this year.
”Landlords are finding new uses for their retail spaces while tenants like HCF are seeking ways to engage further with their customers with a more prominent street presence,” he said.
A spokeswoman for HCF said the new state-of-the-art dental centre would open in January 2018.
“The HCF Dental Centre will take up three floors of the Collins Street site and will incorporate three of the latest new technologies in the field, including CBCT [cone beam computed tomography], milling and digital scanning.
“Part of our dental centre strategy, the flagship Melbourne dental centre will initially feature six seats with room to expand,” she said.
HCF opened its first dental centre in Sydney in 1987.
The western end of Collins Street is rapidly involved with a string of new hotels and high-rise towers in the pipeline and major projects like Mirvac’s Olderfleet office development at 477 Collins Street already underway.
