DOCKLANDS > ANZ HQ > 55m / 12L - nation's largest office building

[tayser]

Oh where shall it be?

AFR
13/03/06
Matthew Dunkley

The ANZ Bank insists it will bite the bullet and spend an estimated $350 million plus on a new home in Melbourne.

There has been some cynicism in property circles about the bank's commitment to its ongoing expression of interest process, seeking a new 80,000 square metre campus.

Those doubts were bred by two previous "fashion parades" by the ANZ in the past six years that led to no action.

ANZ's head of property, Jane Hamilton, told The Australian Financial Review that this time the intent was firm.

"We are serious," she said.

"With our lease expiries we have a huge opportunity to consolidate."

Having spent last week receiving presentations from the short-listed hopefuls, Ms Hamilton said she hoped to make a recommendation to the ANZ board within two weeks and have a decision on a preferred bidder by the end of March.

"We have had some absolutely fantastic proposals," she said.

"Once we have selected a developer we will be working with our employee group [because] we have to make sure it suits the people who will be occupying it.

"There is a long way to go yet."

She said the shift to new headquarters with a completely different workplace design was an important part of the bank's cultural transformation.

"The feeling I get in the ANZ is people are very ready for it. We are not going to have to do as much as you would expect in a culture that is more traditional," she said.

"People are ready for this . . . I'm not saying we won't have to do some work, but all the surveying we have done is that everybody is up for it."

The short list was made in January from about 50 expressions of interest after ANZ announced a new property strategy in early December.

Lend Lease and Malaysia's Kuok Group, both of which are offering sites in Melbourne's Docklands, are regarded as the frontrunners.

Three of the short-listed bidders have proposed the former Carlton & United Breweries site for the new facility, which would consolidate 10 buildings and several thousand staff under one roof.

Grocon and Multiplex have both lodged ambitious proposals to build over railway lines to the east of Federation Square at the end of Russell Street.

ANZ wants to move into the new building by July 2009 at the latest and has proposed a lease term of 15 years with two additional five-year options.

The bank's strategy also includes a major refurbishment of its Melbourne headquarters at 100 Queen Street and an alternative to its Sydney premises in Martin Place.

Last week it announced five shortlisted sites for its 20,000 sq m requirement in Sydney, after fielding offers from 16 owners and developers.

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Next to Fed Square / Jolimont = from me.

Or an 80,000sqm Melbourne Central sized tower on the CUB site

[DrDan]

unfortunately no one wants a tower these days

[Marky Mark]

at least 20 Floors high at 4000sqms a Plate , so to look down on the other Banks !

ANZ tipped for berth at Docklands
Peter Taylor
04apr06

SPECULATION is mounting that banking giant ANZ is on the cusp of choosing Melbourne's Docklands for its proposed 80,000sq m office base.

ANZ is widely tipped to have all but settled on the harbourside precinct in a move that would secure the Docklands as Australia's new financial services hub.
The bank is keeping mum about where it will consolidate its 10 Melbourne offices, despite earlier saying an announcement was likely by the end of March.

A spokeswoman said yesterday a decision would not be revealed this week and the bank could not put a time frame on when an announcement would be made. But agents expect ANZ is on the brink of detailing its plans.

One senior agent said the Kuok Group's site, south of the Collins St extension, had emerged as the likely winner for the $350 million development.









Other frontrunners, including the RMIT-owned former brewery site in Swanston St and the air space above the rail tracks east of Federation Square, were only remote possibilities, he said.

The Flinders St site was particularly unlikely given the problems developers had encountered recently working around public transport infrastructure elsewhere.

"I thought it was a great idea but given all the issues they have had with the Southern Cross development, the timing was just too dangerous," he said.

Another senior agent told BusinessDaily that Kuok and Lend Lease sites at Docklands were the most logical for a company of ANZ's scale.

ANZ chief executive John McFarlane was a "serious cookie" who wouldn't defer a decision longer than necessary, the agent said.

"I don't think it's a fishing exercise. I think it's got real legs.

"It would be very embarrassing if they did it again," the agent said, referring to the bank's decision late in 2001 to jettison plans then for a Docklands move after a year of planning.

But a third agent believes those problems have increased the bank's resolve to make the appropriate decision now, and bank executives were scrutinising details thoroughly before confirming the move.

"They don't want to stuff it up," he said.

If it does choose the Docklands, the site will be within several hundred metres of the National Australia Bank headquarters, AXA's Asia-Pacific base and Bendigo Bank's Melbourne offices.

ANZ global head of property Jane Hamilton has previously revealed that the bank wants a low-rise "campus-style" building with large floor plates.

The bank is likely to keep its 100 Queen St head office but move from its other Melbourne offices, with the new office likely to have room for several thousand staff.

[lozza]

He's not gay, but he's slept with a bloke who is !

Lozza

Go ANZ at Docklands !

[dynamoultraclean]

Roughly, how big is the average floor plate on a 150-200m building?

[Grollo]

Usually 1600-2000 square metres.

A previous article said they were will to consider floorplates down to 2000 square metres in size which would be 40 floors of offices which would be at least 150m high ;-)

If they have 7000 square metres floorplates like NAB Docklands it wil only need 12 floors of offices or at least 60 mteres high :-(

[Tri-City Guy]

Be funny if that Kuok super tower happened in the end. Imagine an ANZ with a Shangri-La on top. We'd be getting a tower then. Wishful thinking perhaps but you never know. One can always dream.

[bdrumster]

so has shangri-la hotel been canned all together or has it just been put on hold for now

[sakor1]

Canned for now.

Stu

[Grollo]

There are six lots that make up Village Docklands, each is around 2500 square metres. The hotel will take up one lot and the existing residential take up another. So the ANZ office could be a 40 storey tower on one lot or a 20 storey tower across two of the remaining four lots.

There was always going to be a commerical component to Village Docklands taking up 2 or 3 of the lots.

[bdrumster]

Originally Posted by Grollo

There are six lots that make up Village Docklands, each is around 2500 square metres. The hotel will take up one lot and the existing residential take up another. So the ANZ office could be a 40 storey tower on one lot or a 20 storey tower across two of the remaining four lots.

There was always going to be a commerical component to Village Docklands taking up 2 or 3 of the lots.

Thanks grollo....yeah i realise that the anz hq doesn't have a bearing on the hotel's existance. The reason why i asked is that there has been mixed hear-say on whether shangri-la was going ahead or not. Just wondering if anyone knew for sure.....

[Aussie Steve]

I still think its a shame we are building campus style offices in the CBD when some suburbs (Mulgrave, Nunawading, Cheltenham etc.) can accomodate lowrise. Like we have a max height limit, there should be a minimum height limit based on location and size of land.

[A r c h i]

I think Village Docklands needs ANZ more than any of the other sites as it's come to a complete halt after just one tower (aside from a road they're working on).

[bdrumster]

maybe attract the shangri-la to get back on its legs......heres hopin!!!

[Marky Mark]

Lend Lease are bound to get it , would love it if they went to 30-40 Floors , just to look down on the Nab ! wouldn't the nad be pissed off ..... a low to mid rise battle of the Banks

Becton off the shortlist for ANZ's new offices
Maurice Dunlevy
April 26, 2006
ANZ has reportedly dropped publicly listed developer Becton from a shortlist to build its planned 80,000sqm Melbourne offices.
The Becton bid involved a campus-style complex on the 19,380sqm former Carlton & United Breweries site at the northern end of the CBD.

But in a setback for the developer - and possibly the owner of the site, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) - ANZ has rejected the proposal and cast a cloud over three bids from other shortlisted developers that also involve the site.

Cbus Property, the development arm of the construction industry super fund; PDG Corp, a private company developing the nearby Ansett site; and the Buxtons' MAB Corp are understood to remain on the ANZ shortlist, even though their bids also involve the RMIT-owned site.

Neither ANZ nor Becton managing director Hamish Macdonald could be contacted yesterday.

Becton, whose share price has wallowed since the company listed on the ASX in July last year, is desperate for new projects.

While Becton employs a large construction workforce, it has only a handful of current projects.

If, as seems likely, ANZ is about to rule out the CUB site as a future location, it will also be a setback for RMIT, which bought the site from the government of Nauru in 1998 for about $25 million.

Regarded as Melbourne's last remaining "bomb site", the land has remained vacant for two decades.

Last year financially troubled RMIT proposed a mixed-use development that would include a postgraduate research centre and lecture rooms.

ANZ, which is believed to be close to making a final decision, apparently was unimpressed with the prospect of sharing the site with a university building.

ANZ is understood to have been equally unimpressed by separate proposals from Grocon and Multiplex to build the new office complex at the rear of Federation Square.

With no development approval process in place, ANZ was concerned neither builder could meet a completion deadline of mid-2009.

That has left two possible sites, both at the Melbourne Docklands.

A Lend Lease proposal to locate the complex close to the Yarra River within its Victoria Harbour precinct remains the hot favourite. However, no one is willing to rule out the Kuok Group bid, which involves nearby land in a joint venture with Walker Corp.

[A r c h i]

I wish they'd just make a freakin' decision already. This delay in ANZ's announcement seems to be delaying RMIT's announcement of the winning tender for the CUB site.

[Muse]

Walker or Lend Lease will get the job done. Don't really want to see it go to Walker as part of a consortium with an O.S. off-shore company in Oz though. Poor ole Becton seems to have a curse on it.

[Aussie Steve]

If ANZ were smart, they woudl build a tall office tower at the top end of Swanston St. It would have such a commanding presence. Mind you, the office tower would have to be joined with either another 1, 2 or 3 office towers a hotel and both student and other apartments.

[dynamoultraclean]

Hey, don't knock the NAB! I have an assessment there on Monday.

[Marky Mark]

Delivered House Plans to Clients today , anyway the Client is rather high up at ANZ , I asked if ANZ had made a decision on the site for their Headquarters , the reply was that the final decision was taking so long because alot of the directors did not want to be any where near the NAB !

Then today I see a small caption in Capital Gain , saying that ANZ is tight lipped about the preferred location , Lend Leases proposal is still a favourite , but an industry source advises against ruling out PDGs Carlton and United Brewery site in Swanston Street ! HMMMMMMMMMMMM