This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
The Hong Kong owners of Melbourne’s 333 Collins Street office complex are faced with a leasing embarrassment ahead of the rumored sale of 29-storey building.
Anchor tenants St George Bank and AGL have told 333’s owner, Choice Property Group that they intend to quit the building when their lease expires at the end of this year.
The two tenants occupy some 20,000 sqm of the building, which has more than 60,000 sqm of floor space and a four level underground carpark has space for 415 cars.
Although denying the building is for sale, it is understood to have been listed off market with CB Richard Ellis.
Choice Property, through Bill Kwok’s Wing On International Holdings, paid more $240 million for the building 10-years ago.
AGL is headed to 120 Spencer Street, where it has signed a heads of agreement for more than 10,000 sqm of space in a building owned by Gold Metal soft drinks owner Spiro Stamolis.
St George Bank is in negotiations with General Property Trust to lease about 10,000 sqm at 530 Collins Street.
The two latest moves in Melbourne’s rental merry-go-round could not have come at worst time for Choice Property, which now has the job of finding new tenants for the bottom floors of the landmark office tower, which was developed in the 1980’s by Becton Corporation as a future Australian Stock Exchange building.
The building became caught up in the State Bank owned Tri-Continental collapse of the late 1980’s and was inherited by South Australian Government after its then State Government Insurance Commission was caught with a put option, which required SGIC to buy the building.
Although the final figure has never been disclosed, the sale of Wing On is reputed to have cost South Australian tax payers up to $850 million.
Despite loosing accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as a major tenant last year, 333 retains a blue chip tenant list that includes Arnold Bloch Leibler and Clayton Utz.
By Adam Parsons
