Office tower in Melbourne has become Australia’s first older building to attain a platinum WELL certification
A refurbished 1973 office tower in Melbourne has become Australia’s first older building to attain a top platinum WELL certification, making it a template for all other existing assets wanting to offer healthier workplaces.
While there are 15 new buildings in the nation that have hit the same high rung, the 26-storey 500 Collins Street is the first of the older stock to clinch the prestigious rating.
It comes as a number of commercial property owners, since COVID-19, look to reposition their assets to put well-being at their core to retain, and attract, quality tenants.
“It’s really pleasing to have earned this recognition with an existing building,” said Mark Ross, managing director of building owners and landlords Kamirice.
“It’s also a good story for other existing building owners, and I think it demonstrates that wellness and healthy working environments can be achieved with these assets.
“It’s only just been announced, but I would think it would mean an increase in value for the building. Anything that improves liveability will reduce vacancy rates, and the advantages will flow to our tenants who want to attract top talent to healthier workplaces.”
Agents agree that the new rating is likely to have considerable positive ramifications.
Richard Norman, director of office leasing at JLL, says when the news gets out, he expects current tenants to be delighted and potential lessees to be keen.
“I fail to see how a platinum WELL rating won’t be well received,” he said.
“A healthy building will always be attractive, particularly with COVID-19. There still seems to be a reasonable level of activity of people in the CBD, Southbank and Docklands looking to uplift their office space to improve working environments.
“They want to encourage staff to come back to offices rather than work remotely, and so that will encourage leasing activity. The building will particularly appeal to those tenants who might normally look at a brand new, shiny product that would have a good WELL rating, but have brand new, shiny prices to go with it.”
Another bonus that 500 Collins offers, as a completely refurbished older building, is that it presents a range of floor plates, from 100 square metres to 1000 square metres, that are likely to appeal to an assortment of small to mid-sized businesses, out of its total 26,000 square metres of net lettable area.
On the other hand, new buildings tend to have mostly bigger floor plates to attract large companies or big anchor tenants or are purpose-built for a specific organisation.
Property owners Kamirice bought the tower, with retail at its ground floor, in 2002 and embarked on an eight-year renovation that made it the first multi-tenanted high rise office building to achieve a 5-star GreenStar Office Design V1 rating. As a result, it received a number of industry awards for its environmental achievements.
Recently, they decided to undertake an additional $5 million upgrade to aim for a gold rating in the International WELL Building Institute’s (IWBI) WELL Building Standard, a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based scientific research.
“But as we worked our way through the process, we realised that platinum was possible,” said Mr Ross. “So, we undertook a lot of activity behind the scenes, as well as introducing a high-quality end-of-trip facility and a new ground-floor business lounge.”
The building achieved a platinum rating based on 10 categories of building performance – air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community. This was achieved via testing on its air quality, ventilation, thermal and acoustic comfort, water systems, and the introduction of non-toxic cleaning products, healthy vending machines and the creation of an online tenant portal to share nutritious recipes and promote mental health.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see the first existing building in Australia achieve this certification,” said Tori Shepherd, IWBI manager. “It’s definitely world-leading, which is something we’re really proud of because Australia certainly punches above its weight in this area.
“When WELL was first launched in 2014, it was based on commercial office spaces and industrial for new product, but over the past years, others have also come in. 500 Collins has undergone a remarkable transformation, and I think it demonstrates that this kind of change is definitely attainable and feasible.”
At the moment, 20 per cent of all commercial offices in Australia are registered under WELL, making up nearly 300 projects of the 29,332 projects globally in 97 countries.
But the platinum rating makes 500 Collins special, believes its newest tenant, brand and corporate creative agency, Collier Creative. “It just ticked all the boxes for us,” said Mark Reinheimer, partner and creative director.
“It’s a modern, well-designed space with updated airconditioning and LED lighting throughout the whole building with a particularly impressive foyer, and it’s in a fantastic location.
“The building’s environmental attributes with that top rating also puts it at the forefront of everyone’s minds, too. We have a lot of clients come to us, so it’s nice for them to walk through that space while we want our staff to be proud to work here.”
