Pembroke secures Accenture for Melbourne's T&G Building
US property group Pembroke Real Estate has won its first new major tenant since buying the T&G building in Melbourne for $275 million and embarking on a major refurbishment.
Professional services giant Accenture has agreed to a 10-year lease across two floors at the Collins Street landmark, taking up nearly 8000 square metres for its Melbourne headquarters.
With that tenancy the 1930s-era building, one of the best-known properties at the Paris end of Collins Street, is now 64 per cent leased.
The lease deal is a vindication of Pembroke’s decision to acquire the building in 2015 even though its major tenant, KPMG, had by then committed to move its own headquarters – about 30,000 square metres – down to Lang Walker’s Collins Square development in Docklands.
An artist’s impression of the reworked pedestrian laneway at the rear of the T&G building.
“Pembroke is working to bring the T&G Building into the 21st century, by delivering world-class, flexible workspaces within a heritage building,” said Pembroke’s head of Australia, Matthew Knight.
“Accenture is an international brand and already a significant tenant at a Pembroke property in Washington, DC. We are delighted to not just be welcoming them to the T&G Building, but to be further building on this global relationship.”
While Accenture is the first new tenant, the refurbishment has also won over long-term tenant IOOF.
The financial services company last year signed up for a new 10-year lease, expanding from just under 4000 square metres to 8000 square metres across two floors.
The heritage building on the corner of Collins and Russell streets has become IOOF’s Melbourne headquarters, as it consolidates operations elsewhere in the city.
The T&G atrium will be reconfigured as in this artist’s impression.
The T&G Building has 43,000 square metres of A-grade office space over 10 levels with campus style floor plates of up to 4000 square metres.
Pembroke is no stranger to refurbishing a building without a major tenant. At 20 Martin Place in Sydney, which it acquired in 2011, it undertook a dramatic redevelopment and later won Apple as an anchor tenant.
For the T&G Building, at 161 Collins Street, Pembroke has brought in architects Bates Smart to rework key features of the art deco classic.
The refurbishment is now under way and due to be completed in 2018. It includes a new entry for the carpark as well as an overhaul of the main Collins Street entrance.
The building’s atrium will be dramatically reconfigured while a pedestrian laneway will give access at the rear from Flinders Lane.
Pembroke also owns 70 Eagle Street in Brisbane.
