Charter Hall to build $200m tower on Lonsdale St

The $200 million 22-storey office block at 140 Lonsdale St, owned by the Charter Hall Office Trust, will join another two of the group’s projects nearby.

The same trust owns an existing tower at 150 Lonsdale St, while the Charter Hall Prime Office Fund owns the $600 million Wesley Place development at 130 Lonsdale St.

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The new A-grade office project will have 16,500 square metres of office space and about 380 car spaces.

It will target a five-star Green Star and five-star NABERS rating and is set to be complete in the first half of 2020.

Charter Hall’s office chief executive Adrian Taylor says the group’s $9.5 billion office portfolio allows it to originate projects organically, creating “institutional quality investment opportunities” in the office sector.

Charter Hall Office Trust fund manager Trent James says the revitalisation of the area gives investors exposure to part of Melbourne’s CBD where substantial development is underway and will transform the neighbourhood.

The Wesley Place development has already secured key tenants for 30,000 square metres of space and about half of forecast income, including TelstraSuper and Cbus Super, along with Wesley Mission Victoria and the Uniting Church in Australia.

Vanguard is also understood to be close to agreeing on terms to take space in the tower — after being rumoured to have previously considered Cbus Property’s Collins Arch and deciding against it — and advertising group Dentsu had earlier been linked to the project.

Charter Hall’s head of office development Andrew Borger says the area will be transformed into a “world-class workplace and lifestyle precinct” combining the heritage of the area with a new vision for the CBD.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.