This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
LENDLEASE has received approval for a 10-storey retail and office tower above the new underground Metro Tunnel Town Hall station in Melbourne’s CBD, at the landmark intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets.
Hassell architects-designed Town Hall Place will be located at 25 Swanston Street and feature a modern A-grade commercial building with about 16,000 sqm of floor space, accommodating up to 1,600 workers, and with a new contemporary arcade creating about 2,000 sqm of retail and dining at ground level.
New connections will be made between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and Scott and Cocker alleys will be reactivated.
Town Hall Place will connect seamlessly with the Town Hall station, part of the Victorian government’s $11 billion Metro Tunnel train project that is delivering five new underground stations to the CBD and its fringes. Lendlease is part of a consortium that is delivering the tunnel and the stations, the Cross Yarra Partnership, which also includes John Holland, Bouygues Construction, John Laing and Capella Capital.
Lendlease will act as developer and builder for Town Hall Place, with construction expected to commence in 2024. The site is owned by the Department of Transport and the Victorian government.
The intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets is also home to civic square Federation Square, Flinders Street train station, St Paul’s Cathedral, and popular watering hole the Young and Jackson Hotel.
Town Hall Place will offer views over Flinders Street station, Federation Square, and St Paul’s, and to the Arts Centre and the MCG.
“Town Hall Place is a rare opportunity to reinvigorate this iconic part of Melbourne’s CBD with new laneways and arcades, retail and dining and a next-generation workplace that will contribute to the vibrant culture of this renowned area,” said Lendlease managing director of development, Tom Mackellar.
“The transformation of this site will showcase how smart over-station development can unlock the potential of our cities by linking key transport interchanges with exceptional retail, workplace, and lifestyle experiences.”
The office building will be all-electric and powered 100% by renewable energy for base building operations, providing a pathway for tenants to a carbon-neutral workplace. The building is targeting a 6 Star Green Star Design & As Built v1.3 rating and pursuing a WELL Gold Core rating.
A surge in office supply in recent years pushed out Melbourne’s office vacancy rate to 13.8% in the six months to January, according to the Property Council. A whopping 500,000 sqm of new developments reached completion in the CBD and fringe in 2020 and 2021, and a further 220,000 sqm is due across this year and in 2024. Prime and A-grade offices have attracted the lion’s share of tenants amid a flight to quality that has been seen across the country.
Elsewhere in the Melbourne CBD, Lendlease is developing the $2.9 billion Melbourne Quarter opposite Southern Cross station, in the west end, and which on completion will include five office and residential towers.
One Melbourne Quarter is home to Arup, AMP and Lendlease, while tenants at Two Melbourne Quarter include EnergyAustralia, International Working Group, Datacom, Productivity Commission, Equifax and IDP Education.
