Former rivals JB Hi Fi and The Good Guys leave backfill offices at Chadstone, Essendon Fields

Tower 2 at Chadstone Shopping Centre was until this month, JB Hi Fi’s headquarters.

Two retail rivals – which merged in 2016 and recently moved in together at Southgate, have left vacancies in two high-profile suburban offices – which two even higher-profile landlords are now trying to lease.

JB Hi Fi and The Good Guys this month set up at a new headquarters: a 9500 square metre tenancy across nine floors at 60 City Road, within ARA Asset Manager’s Southgate Towers.

JB Hi Fi relocated from a modern 4500 sqm office at Chadstone Shopping Centre, owned by Vicinity Centres and the Gandel Group, directed by billionaire businessman John Gandel. This space, in tower two at the centre, is now for lease asking $380 per sqm, per annum.

The Good Guys, meanwhile, has shifted out of a contemporary space within Essendon Fields, in Melbourne’s north-west.

About 6200 sqm is consequently available for rent at 15 Vaughan St, a property controlled by Beck Corporation, owned by Max Beck, and the Fox family’s Linfox Group. The ex-Good Guys space is expected to lease for about $360 per square metre, per annum.

The Good Guys redundant, contemporary Essendon Fields office.

Like Chadstone, the Essendon Fields office is available with an existing contemporary fit-out.

Colliers International’s Kevin Tutty, Rob Joyes and Travis Myerscough are marketing the Chadstone backfill space. Mr Tutty and Mr Myerscough, with JLL’s Josh Tebb and Richard Norman, are seeking occupiers for the Essendon Fields office.

Mr Tutty said that fully-fitted, ‘turnkey’ tenancies with well-designed and considered layouts are performing very strongly in the current leasing market.

Prior to moving to Essendon Fields, The Good Guys was for years headquartered at a nearby Airport West office in Matthews Avenue – a building visible from the Tullamarine Freeway along the route from the city to Melbourne Airport.

JB Hi Fi was founded about a kilometre away, in East Keilor’s Centreway, in 1974.

The Good Guys former office at 15 Vaughan Street, Essendon Fields, is for rent asking $360 per square metre, per annum.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.