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Melbourne's office roundabout has cranked another turn with the ANZ Banking Group putting out feelers for up to 100,000 square metres of new office space.
It's the third time in as many years that the ANZ has checked out the cost of leasing new space in Melbourne's dynamic office market but potential sites for such a large requirement are starting to dry up.
According to agents, there are no sites in the CBD which could support a building of 100,000 sq m, which would suggest the ANZ is hatching plans to escape the city for Docklands where there are several potential spaces. That could mean selling its 34-level tower on the corner of Collins and Queens streets.The ANZ declined to comment yesterday.
A site at the bottom of Collins Street could take 70,000 sq m but that project is on a shortlist to win insurer IAG's 36,000 sq m office building.
A new ANZ building would be Melbourne's 13th major office building in only four years.
In 2003, the ANZ put out a modest request for 20,000 sq m after a plan to commit to a 90,000 sq m new head office in Docklands was scuppered by the corporate panic engendered by the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Nearly 500,000 sq m worth of new leases were signed during 2004 but warnings of a commercial oversupply and savage rental discounting did not happen. Instead, tenants were lured into the market, thinking they could get a good deal in the prestigious new high-technology spaces in single buildings.
BHP Billiton abandoned Bourke Place for the Grollo's QV towers at the old Queen Victoria hospital site.
Telstra's registries business, Sensis consolidated a number of sites and also moved to QV.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is about to move to a new Southbank office tower, while Ernst & Young, Deacons and the Victorian government await their new buildings in Melbourne's CBD.
The Bureau of Meteorology, Telstra and Medibank Private made the shift over the border into Docklands, as did the National Australia Bank, whose huge campus-style building has become an icon of the new large-floor plate corporate office. Other companies doing the leasing tango included legal firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, the Australian Communications Authority, Connex, Bell Potter, Kellogg Brown & Root, Pitcher Partners, Phillips Fox and technology company UCMS.
Axa recently agreed to a 30,000 sq m lease in a new Grocon-built tower at Docklands, while Optus is tipped to be moving 15,000 sq m out of Collins Street into 452 Flinders Street. Meanwhile, Minter Ellison is looking for 14,000 sq m and Australian Customs is looking for 12,000 sq m.
Melbourne's office roundabout has cranked another turn with the ANZ Banking Group putting out feelers for up to 100,000 square metres of new office space.
It's the third time in as many years that the ANZ has checked out the cost of leasing new space in Melbourne's dynamic office market but potential sites for such a large requirement are starting to dry up.
According to agents, there are no sites in the CBD which could support a building of 100,000 sq m, which would suggest the ANZ is hatching plans to escape the city for Docklands where there are several potential spaces. That could mean selling its 34-level tower on the corner of Collins and Queens streets.The ANZ declined to comment yesterday.
A site at the bottom of Collins Street could take 70,000 sq m but that project is on a shortlist to win insurer IAG's 36,000 sq m office building.
A new ANZ building would be Melbourne's 13th major office building in only four years.
In 2003, the ANZ put out a modest request for 20,000 sq m after a plan to commit to a 90,000 sq m new head office in Docklands was scuppered by the corporate panic engendered by the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Nearly 500,000 sq m worth of new leases were signed during 2004 but warnings of a commercial oversupply and savage rental discounting did not happen. Instead, tenants were lured into the market, thinking they could get a good deal in the prestigious new high-technology spaces in single buildings.
BHP Billiton abandoned Bourke Place for the Grollo's QV towers at the old Queen Victoria hospital site.
Telstra's registries business, Sensis consolidated a number of sites and also moved to QV.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is about to move to a new Southbank office tower, while Ernst & Young, Deacons and the Victorian government await their new buildings in Melbourne's CBD.
The Bureau of Meteorology, Telstra and Medibank Private made the shift over the border into Docklands, as did the National Australia Bank, whose huge campus-style building has become an icon of the new large-floor plate corporate office. Other companies doing the leasing tango included legal firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, the Australian Communications Authority, Connex, Bell Potter, Kellogg Brown & Root, Pitcher Partners, Phillips Fox and technology company UCMS.
Axa recently agreed to a 30,000 sq m lease in a new Grocon-built tower at Docklands, while Optus is tipped to be moving 15,000 sq m out of Collins Street into 452 Flinders Street. Meanwhile, Minter Ellison is looking for 14,000 sq m and Australian Customs is looking for 12,000 sq m.