Metro Trains on move as Sky Rail gathers steam

Melbourne’s rail provider Metro Trains will move its offices, utilities and service vehicle workshop to Clayton in the city’s south-east, as it ramps up level crossing removals.

Metro will lease a site currently occupied by utility infrastructure service provider Zinfra Group, and will take over the remaining three years of the Zinfra lease after negotiating a deal for around $2.6 million per year.

The site at 610 Heatherton Rd has 3865sqm of office space, 4600sqm of workshop space and 12,000sqm of hardstand space and includes 413 car bays.

The move comes as Metro ramps up its Level Crossing Removal Project, which will see 11 level crossings in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs moved above ground or underground.

We expect the rollout of government-related infrastructure projects to have a direct impact on leasing demand

Construction to remove nine crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong began this week, with the crossings and tracks to be replaced by the controversial elevated ‘Sky Rail’.

JLL directors of office leasing Joshua Tebb and Andrew O’Connell negotiated the Clayton deal on behalf of Frasers Property Group and Zinfra Group.

Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Project is gathering pace.

Webb says Metro’s move will be one of many major leasing deals announced in the south-eastern suburbs in the coming months, with a number of major infrastructure projects necessitating additional space.

“In 2015, the Victorian government detailed plans to spend $22 billion on infrastructure projects and create over 100,000 new jobs in four years,” Tebb says.

2016 is on track to be another strong leasing year with 339,260sqm of industrial space recorded in the first half of the year

“We expect the rollout of government-related infrastructure projects to have a direct impact on leasing demand, as projects elect to consolidate resources into single premises.”

JLL Victorian research director Annabel McFarlane says Victoria’s industrial leasing market has boomed in 2016.

“2016 is on track to be another strong leasing year with 339,260sqm of industrial space recorded in the first half of the year, compared to a 10-year average of 550,000sqm per annum,” McFarlane says.

“Businesses classified as either transport, logistics or retail trade dominated this quarter with 76% of area taken up in these sectors.”