Lendlease pockets $550m for Melbourne Quarter tower
Lendlease is pushing ahead with its Two Melbourne Quarter office tower, selling the $550 million project to First State Super and to one of its funds as it signs anchor tenant EnergyAustralia.
Construction is set to start this month for the 25-storey, 50,000sqm Woods Bagot-designed tower, which is almost half leased.
As first reported by The Australian, EnergyAustralia will take a major chunk of the floorspace in the project, with the key precommitment allowing the building to get under way.
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The power retailer will be the anchor tenant for the building and has agreed to lease approximately 22,000sqm or nearly half of the space over 10 and a half levels.
About 12 contiguous floors are left in the building that is set to house up to 4500 workers on flexible 2000sqm floor plates when complete.
Lendlease Development will build the project, which will be jointly owned by the super fund and the Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial and managed by Lendlease Investment Management.
The deal follows an equity raising by the fund, which also bought the first tower in the precinct, One Melbourne Quarter, in 2016.
One Melbourne Quarter is 90% leased, including major tenant AMP as well as Arup and Lendlease itself, with the building on track to be completed this year.
Two Melbourne Quarter will target high environmental standards including a six star Green Star rating and a 5.5 star NABERS Energy rating, a good fit for EnergyAustralia, whose managing director Catherine Tanna has publicly backed clean energy.
APPF Commercial fund manager Scott Mosely says the deal will help the fund roll out a strategy of investing in efficient, sustainable office buildings in amenity-rich areas.
First State Super chief executive Michael Dwyer says the investment would help provide long-term, sustainable returns for the fund’s members. “We look to invest in the communities in which our members live, work and retire,” he said.
Lendlease has been pressing ahead with mixed-use projects around the world and has teamed with US giant Starwood Capital Group in hopes of winning development rights for a site in east London that could be worth £3.5 billion ($6.37 billion).
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
