Salta hires Hickory to build two new Mulgrave office towers
Salta Properties, the development company owned by the Rich Lister Tarascio family, has appointed Hickory to build two new office buildings with an end value of $150 million in south-eastern Melbourne’s Mulgrave, after securing Carlisle Homes as an anchor tenant.
Carlisle Homes is already a tenant in Salta’s Nexus Corporate business park but the move, triggered by growth of the home builder, will see it take 8000 square metres of the available 12,000 square metres in one of the new buildings. A second, smaller, building will have 8000 square metres.
“Carlisle Homes’ commitment to the site allows us to fast-track the development and appoint Hickory as our construction partner, who we look forward to working with as the project gets under way,” Salta managing director Sam Tarascio said.
Construction work on both buildings will start next month and completion is scheduled by 2021.
“Salta Properties has been incredibly accommodating during our 12 years at Nexus Corporate and has supported our business growth from the outset, expanding from 45 to 300 employees since we first moved into the precinct in 2007,” said Carlisle Homes managing director John Doulgeridis.
Low vacancy rates – triggered by the lowest CBD vacancy rates in the country in Melbourne – have sent the values of suburban offices soaring over the past 18 months, with investors flocking into the asset class.
Pushing growth
Strong office demand, along with the growing demand for warehouses and logistics to service the boom in e-commerce, is also pushing growth in commercial construction. Peak industry forecasting body ACIF last month said the $42.3 billion-worth of commercial construction last year was stronger than it predicted seven months ago in November.
It also raised its forecast for commercial work in the year to June 2019 to $43.6 billion from $43.1 billion.
The two new buildings will increase the total office space of Nexus Corporate business park to 75,000 square metres.
Salta sees the business park as a way to service the growing population and employment needs of the Monash National Employment Cluster, the name of the area earmarked by the state government for growth.
Salta has been expanding the facility since buying it in the mid-2000s. In 2015, it purchased two sites adjacent to the park for an undisclosed sum and has secured a range of tenants to the park including, last year, Blockchain technology firm Blockchain Tech (BCT).
