Tower gathers momentum
Agent urges developers to turn plans into reality as office demand increases
THE time is right for commercial property developers to turn office blueprints into reality as businesses hunt for new, modern spaces, leading CBD commercial agent Michael De Stefano said.
The Gartland Property director was speaking after it was revealed GMHBA was reviewing its long-term head office accommodation needs in Geelong.
Mr De Stefano is the lead agent seeking expressions of interest for the eight-storey Dennys Lascelles Tower at the corner of Gheringhap and Brougham streets.
Geelong developers Scott Vickers-Willis and Dean Montgomery are behind the tower, taking over the former woolstore after a similar proposal from construction giant Grocon missed out on the tender for the NDIS headquarters.
The Geelong Advertiser asked Mr De Stefano whether the Dennys Lascelles Tower would be the type of project on GMHBA’s radar.
“I’m not quite sure what their total size requirement is to be honest but they’re not going to occupy that entire building,” he said.
“The way the building has been designed is so it can be occupied by multiple tenancies.
“It’s got about 2000sq m floorplates, so it might be where they take one, two, three or four levels and the rest can be used for smaller tenancies.”
But Mr De Stefano said Geelong’s office market was receiving a number of new office requests from businesses.
“That space has really started to gather momentum in the Geelong market,” Mr De Stefano said.
“We’re getting typically anywhere between 700sq m and 2500sq m requirements constantly at the moment.
“The demand for office (space) and the demand for those types of developments is really prevalent.”
Mr De Stefano said it was a mix of local and new businesses to the region.
“We’re seeing existing businesses looking at expanding as well as not only re-energising but changing the look of where they currently are, in dated stock I guess.
“But we’re also seeing companies that aren’t in our landscape at the moment looking to transition and opening up either a Geelong office or relo- cating to Geelong.”
While projects like 1 Malop and The Carlton had expanded Geelong’s office market, Mr De Stefano said the big government agencies had spoken for most of the buildings’ available office space.
“There has been very little opportunity for people to move their operations into a new facility so anything that is built, or is under EOI, I think the audience is there at the moment.”
Mr De Stefano said developers would need long-term precommitments from tenants to embark on the costly projects though.