Families Fox, Beck, prepare to build Arc office at Essendon Fields following pre-commitment
A new office is set to take shape at Essendon Fields – a $1 billion-plus village replacing Essendon Airport land, in Melbourne’s north.
The c6000 square metre commercial complex (pictured, top) will form part of an 18,000 sqm A-grade workplace called Arc, set to be developed in two more stages.
Arc will be known by the street address of 2 Larkin Boulevard.
According to this item in The Australian, Essendon Fields leasing agents are close to securing a pre-commitment for Arc from a government tenant.
The leasing agents have been actively marketing the building for 15 months.
At present, Essendon Fields has about 35,000 sqm of office space.
A 6200 sqm chunk of this (pictured, bottom) has been seeking an occupier since earlier this year when the retailer The Good Guys quit Essendon Fields for Southbank.
Essendon Fields is controlled by the wealthy Fox and Beck families following a 50-year lease deal, struck in 1998 with the state government, to take over what was part of the Essendon Airport.
Since striking that $22 million lease deal, the pair have built or proposed more than $1 billion worth of investments on the land.
Some 260,000 sqm of built form has taken shape.
“The precinct houses about 220 businesses employing 6000 people and includes the Hyatt Place hotel and conference centre,” Essendon Fields chief executive Brendan Pihan told The Australian.
Hyatt Place Essendon Fields has an average occupancy rate of at least 80 per cent, which is high.
The precinct also has “the largest collection of car dealerships in the southern hemisphere”, Mr Pihan said.
“We’re getting to critical mass now but we still have 75 hectares of developable land to go”.
