26/03/2004 | Leighton Properties | Commercial
Leighton Properties plans four new buildings at Mulgrave
The buildings will be developed sequentially over the next two years and will have a value of more than $25 million when completed.
Leighton Properties Development Manager Mr Ken Matthews said construction was about to start on the first, a 3300 sqm office building, at 6-8 Compark Circuit.
Architects Millar Watson have just completed concept plans for three further buildings - a 1800 sqm building at Lot 19, a 1750 sqm building at Lot 5 and a 1800 sqm building at Lot 21.
The four buildings total 9250 sqm in area and will be a major addition to the strongly performing Mulgrave office market.
Mr Matthews said Mulgrave is at the forefront of the new wave of office developments sweeping through middle Melbourne as land prices sky rocket beyond the traditional industrial uses and demand for high quality office warehouses rises.
He said the four new office buildings are designed for multiple smaller users or larger tenants looking to establish an individual identity in a stand-alone building.
“The larger tenants enjoy having their own identity rather than being part of a few floors in larger commercial building,” Mr Matthews said.
The speculative development strategy has been successful in the past at Mulgrave with Leighton Properties completing a pioneering office building there in mid 2003.
The 2650 sqm building at 30-32 Compark Circuit was sold to the James Fielding Group for $6 million in 2002. Sold while under construction with a rental guarantee the building was leased to National Foods before completion.
James Fielding Group also paid $14.5 million for two office properties on the site leased to Hitachi Data Systems and an international banking group.
Mt Matthews said the South Eastern office market was still experiencing strong demand from tenants and a shortage of quality stock for investors.
The four buildings proposed will be marketed for sale as soon and planning permission is granted.
“We are confident the buildings will be sold off-the plan and leased on completion,” he said.
When completed com.park@mulgrave will incorporate 35,000 sqm of office and office/warehouse space with parking for 1200 vehicles.
The former BHP Laboratories site has been a highly successful project for Leighton and is now 65% complete after extensive refurbishment of existing building and several land sales to developers.
“Mulgrave is recognised as Melbourne’s major office precinct for hi-tech multi-nationals and com.park@mulgrave continues to be an attractive option for the relocation of several large Australian corporations.
“The availability of floor space varying from 1000 sqm to 3,300 sqm, together with this strong ‘green’ emphasis in the landscaping provides tenants/owners with highly modern facilities in an aesthetically pleasing work environment,” Mr Matthews said.
He said com.park@mulgrave offered tenants and owners the opportunity to tailor premises to their own needs and the ability to incorporate warehousing/manufacturing facilities if required.
“We are seeing a significant pick in demand from last year and this is going to continue for the balance of this year and developers prepared to spec build will reap the rewards,” said Paul Henley South Eastern office director Colliers International.
“Right now 6-8 Compark Circuit is the only building coming out of the ground of any significance in Melbourne’s South East. A number of other developments are suite projects which means corporate occupiers looking for more than 1000 sqm don’t have anything else to choose from in the market,” he said.
Mr Henley said already this year there have been around 14,000 sqm of leasing deal that would be double the same period of 2003.
“There has been a lot of pent up demand and people now have to move and we are starting to see a flurry of activity,” he said.
Mr Henley said demand is coming from traditional office users and a new market ? the larger industrial uses that have outsourced their warehouse and relocated to office buildings. The major recent example of this was Smith and Nephew.
For further information:
Ken Matthews Grant M?ller
Leighton Properties Impact
Development Manager 03 9853 7665
03 2998 7032