Merchant: Female professionals drawn to Sydney suites where the workplace is reimagined
“Club meets hotel meets office” premium suites in the heart of Sydney’s CBD near Martin Place were inspired by more than 30 years of adaptive reuse, and “attracts a lot of females” drawn to its security, its developer says.
Merchant, at 3 Hosking Place, is not your average place of work. It’s where a wine cellar and ice machines are coupled with end-of-trip facilities with a full towel service on every floor, taking the ick out of commuting with dirty towels.
Complete with orange awnings at its built-in lobby cafe, it cements its place in the neighbourhood, with rejuvenated European-style laneways and rooftops at your fingertips. It’s close to Macquarie Bank’s headquarters and the new Sydney Metro Martin Place, shopping arcades, museums and galleries, and famous Circular Quay and The Rocks, which are a short stroll away.
The 42 brand new boutique commercial strata office suites are sophisticated, with hotel-like services and amenities including a full-time concierge, bar, luxe bathrooms and kitchens, and, importantly, communal meeting rooms.
Developer Michael Williams, co-owner of W Property alongside wife Prue, says he acquired the first nine levels of the building, formerly Adina serviced apartments, from 49 separate owners for a collective $26.5 million in September 2021, and completed renovations about a year ago.
“We actually demolished everything. We gutted the whole space because it was designed in the ’90s with large bathrooms, kitchens and a laundry,” Williams says.
They “shrunk it” to 42 serviced apartments “to create some variety”, knocking out walls to create one large and one smaller studio on each floor with different layouts.
Most suites feature a private balcony area, a beautiful galley bar, and new air-conditioning “so you can run your own air conditioning 24/7”.
“We created a coffee shop-bar, so people have that place to congregate. And it’s great to see that unfolding.”
The pair also converted a gym into shared meeting rooms, which you can book through the concierge without having to have your own.
“It’s really a new-age strata for the people who want that home office feeling within a lovely community. It’s very safe and attracts a lot of females.”
The building attracts various professionals, including barristers, lawyers, and accountants, Williams adds.
With around 70 per cent sold already, 13 suites remain listed, with costs ranging from $880,000 for 36 square metres to $2.2 million for the larger suites up to 113 square metres.
“A typical one is selling for about $1.1 million to $1.2 million, that’s $24,500 per square metre,” he says.
Some investors rent them out at $1500 per square metre on the internal area (not including the balcony).
“What’s been interesting is investors bought them initially, and now it’s all owner occupied,” says Williams.
The property is being marketed by Tim Noonan of Noonan Property, as well as Knight Frank’s Andrew Harford and Jessen O’Sullivan.
Merchant’s larger building is home to a Japanese restaurant and 97 residential apartments, developed in 1998 by the late Lang Walker’s Walker Corporation.
Williams says the Merchant project faced significant delays and compliance expenses, with construction costs estimated at about $10 million.
“It took us a long time before we could start building, like, a year [before] we could get our construction certificate. But during that time we were selling off the plan, it was a tough time, because interest rates were going up and there was a lot of uncertainty globally, but nonetheless, we sold about half of it, and then we started building it. “
W Property, which now also includes son Tom, specialises in workplace adaptive reuse, with 44 conversion projects to date, including repurposing the Valhalla cinema in Glebe into workplaces and shops.
W Property also transformed the iconic c1895 heritage building 350 George Street into 61 office suites and seven retail spaces.
Merchant came about when we were “coming out of COVID” and everyone was used to the cosy surroundings of working from home.
“So, the inspiration for Hosking Place was a number of things,” he says. “It’s really an evolution of what people were looking for [post pandemic]. One of the things that they want more than anything is community, a sense of community. They also want a sense of facilities. So, this is what I like to call it: it’s club meets hotel meets office.”
The hotel interior design company, Chada Design, was brought on board for internal shared space fit-outs and briefed to create a “really comfortable” office space. They used deep, warm and bright colours and developed the idea for the cafe awnings as a detail that helps the building stand out on the street.
“For those times when you want to gather, chat, or just hang-out on your laptop, there are workbenches with integrated Wi-Fi connectivity, a library, galley bar, private call cabins and two stunning meeting rooms with state-of-the-art digital media facilities,” the listing reads.
“Everyone wants to come to a space where they belong,” says Williams.
