Clayton Utz Goes Hunting Early For Premises
Clayton Utz says it wants to stay in Collins Street, or close to it, with preference for buildings between Exhibition Street in the east and Spencer Street to the west.
Geoffrey Learmonth, director of tenant representative company LPC Australia, which is acting for Clayton Utz, said Docklands offices would be considered but were not the preferred option. Clayton Utz also wants control of the building’s signs, a dedicated ground-floor concierge and floor plates of at least 1500 sq m.
News of the requirement, one of the biggest for the year, is bound to attract interest from owners of as yet undeveloped office buildings, such as Macquarie Office Trust, which owns a site at 171 Collins Street, and ISPT, which has mooted an office building for the forecourt of 447 Collins Street.
The timing of Clayton Utz’s requirement, four years from now, would allow ample time for a developer to propose, plan and develop an office building. But the timing also coincides with some big licks of existing renovated office space coming to the market, including General Property Trust’s 530 Collins Street, which will have undergone a full office and retail repositioning by August 2012, after major tenant ANZ vacates 33,000 sq m.
Jones Lang LaSalle leasing executives Stuart Colquhoun and Rainer Paterson say that, on completion, 530 Collins Street aims to have a minimum 4.5 star green rating.
It will also have a totally reworked ground-floor lobby with a focus on shops.
Colliers International national office leasing director Andrew Tracey says the big question for Melbourne’s CBD office leasing market in the short term is to what extent the global credit crisis will slow tenant demand.
Speaking about Colliers International’s Melbourne CBD office market indicators report for this spring, Mr Tracey said many companies were implementing capital expenditure freezes and this was resulting in slightly reduced demand.
