Alexandria to be home to new major office tower
Sydney-based real estate investor Markham has become the latest player to enter the city’s rising southern office precinct, proposing a new top-class office complex in Alexandria.
The company has struck a deal to buy 22 O’Riordan St via a short-term sale and leaseback while it works up plans for an A-grade tower. The purchase from City Holdings Pty Ltd was brokered by Michael Crombie of Colliers International for an undisclosed sum.
Interest in the area has jumped, with developer Theo Onisforou last month saying he would develop a $120 million office building.
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Markham is planning to develop a next-generation complex on the 7436sqm site on the corner of O’Riordan St and the extension of Geddes Ave.
Although it is on the doorstep of the Green Square Town Centre, there are few office buildings in the area. Markham is also confident it will win tenants from the city who are facing increasing CBD rents and tight vacancy rates. Major companies have already made the move to precincts such as Mirvac’s South Everleigh and nearby Waterloo. Last week, Caltex was reported to be shifting its Sydney head office to Alexandria.
Markham’s plans for the site include a 20,000sqm campus-style office building, with large, open floor plates surrounding an internal, light-filled atrium.
The project has an emphasis on wellness and lifestyle amenity and one side of the building will have a functional outside “working terrace”.
“The entire Green Square Town Centre is well under way and will be great place to live, work and play — companies are quickly discovering this fantastic area,” Markham chief executive James Markham says.
The City of Sydney has committed $540 million over the next decade for new community facilities, including a library, plaza and an aquatic centre.
The $13 billion Green Square urban renewal project is the first new “village” created within 3km of Sydney’s CBD and is expected to house 61,000 residents in 30,500 new dwellings by 2030.
Markham hopes its building will provide major companies with an “aspirational” working environment and prove an attractive alternative to the CBD.
Initial development approval is expected in early 2020.
Markham has a strong record in repositioning property assets.
It last year swooped on Sydney’s King Street Wharf precinct, picking up the harbourside site from LaSalle Investment Management for $125.5 million. It also bought the office space at the northern end of Piers 8 and 9 in Walsh Bay for $90.5 million.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
