Charter Hall secures Amazon to anchor new 555 Collins Street Project

Charter Hall has secured Amazon as a pre-commit to its its new $750 million ‘555 Collins Street’ office development, which will now commence construction.

The “555” project will comprise the corner 48,000sqm tower as Stage 1, with the Stage 2 Tower comprising 32,000sqm. The 48,000sqm of Premium Grade office space will include over 2,300sqm of retail amenity.

The project secured planning approval from the Victorian State Government under its Building Recovery Taskforce earlier in the year.

Onsite works are already underway for 555 Collins Street’s first tower with Charter Hall confirming Lendlease Constructions as the construction partner, following their completion of the successful “Wesley” 130 Lonsdale Street, a 60,000sqm premium grade office tower completed in June 2020.

Charter Hall’s Managing Director and Group CEO, David Harrison said: “This major pre-commitment provides the momentum for CPOF to proceed with construction and advance further leasing interest during the development phase, as we did on the Wesley project, which was 100% pre committed 12 months before practical completion.

“555 Collins Street is a visionary commercial precinct that will create a new benchmark for office development in Australia. We expect a flight to high quality modern office buildings as tenant customers refine their workplace to meet the changing appetite for modern, technology and health/hygiene driven accommodation requirements” said Mr Harrison.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said projects like 555 Collins Street would drive economic activity in the inner-city. It was one of a raft of major projects to be fast tracked through the Building Victoria Recovery Taskforce established by the Andrews Labor Government in April to get building and
development projects online as quickly as possible during the pandemic.

“This is exactly what Melbourne’s CBD – and our economy – needs right now: a project that will bring to life this end of town and create hundreds of construction jobs. Victoria was the strongest economy in the country before the pandemic and with investments like these in the pipeline, we’re confident we’ll come back even better and stronger.”

Charter Hall Office CEO, Carmel Hourigan said “With 555 Collins Street and our other major office developments under way across Australia, our office committed developments total $1.8 billion WIP, which adds to the delivery of $10 billion in new office buildings during Charter Hall’s history.

555 Collins Street is owned by the Charter Hall Prime Office Fund (CPOF), which on completion of its current development pipeline will grow to an $8 billion office portfolio. With a market leading WALE of 8 plus years, the fund has a high-quality institutional investor register comprising Australian
superannuation funds and global pension funds, insurance companies and Sovereign Wealth Funds.