Mulgrave makeover tastes right for Chobani

US yoghurt powerhouse Chobani will call Melbourne’s south-east home for at least the next five years after leasing an new Australian head office in Mulgrave.

The yoghurt company, owned by billionaire businessman Hamdi Ulukaya, has taken a five-year lease at 333 Police Rd in a deal worth $116,000 per annum.

JLL’s Joshua Tebb and Knight Frank’s Tom Ryan negotiated the deal on the 539sqm space, which has been given an edgy makeover more often seen in inner-city properties but rarely in the suburbs.

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The property’s owner, Melbourne-based investor Brendan Sullivan, says tenants now expect more from suburban commercial property, which includes city-style fit-outs.

“What we are seeing in the market today is a rejection of the bland office spaces delivered by cost efficiencies which, quite bizarrely, don’t allow for the fact that human beings occupy the space,” he says.

Chobani has leased a Mulgrave office after it was given a substantial makeover.

“What we have created and what Chobani have chosen is a space which recognises the most important element is the occupier.”

Sullivan bought the building and its neighbouring office property in October 2014, neither of which had ever been leased, and refurbished them before presenting them to the market.

“Leasing up 333 had obviously presented a real challenge to the previous owners,” he says.

“The space was in a great location with excellent exposure in a desirable building. All that was really required was to offer the market a desirable product.”