Corporate offices replacing customer parking at shopping centres as Chadstone joins the trend
Like shoppers and tourists, corporate businesses are moving in on major retail centres at the price of local parking spots.
Demand from corporate tenants who want to relocate into glamorous shopping centres is on the rise, and office buildings are being planned in response.
According to Colliers International, during the past 12 months nearly 10,000 square metres of office space has been leased in such complexes, with 1,000 square metres in Doncaster and 1,500 square metres in Knox being leased to corporate clients. In the massive $1 billion-plus Chadstone complex 1,500 square metres was leased as office space, and Victoria Gardens has attracted corporate tenants across 5,000 square metres.
A proposed office tower adjoining Chadstone shopping centre will be developed over a well-used parking and landscaped area.
“While dozens of parking places will be lost, the developer is putting in two levels of basement parking to service the offices,” says Colliers associate director of leasing Travis Myerscough.
The basement parking will be leased to office tenants, and the notion of making it available to the public on weekends has been suggested.
“It has been proposed that car park be used by shoppers on the weekend, but that is still being negotiated,” says Myerscough.
So far in Chadstone corporate tenants include medical research group Celletis, while Fleet Partners and Nova Radio are in Victorian Gardens.
“This trend of medium to large corporates moving into retail centres is gaining momentum, as they want to attract and retain staff by have great amenities at the doorstep,” Myerscough says.
Myerscough says more than 20,000 square metres of office space will be released to the market by late 2013.
By 2013 Chadstone, where retailers made $1.28 million in sales in 2010, will have a hotel and an office component that will account for between 10 and 15% of the entire complex. It is already notoriously hard to find a parking space in Chadstone at peak shopping times.
The trend is being mirrored throughout major shopping centres across Australia, says Colliers national director of retail valuation Stephen Andrew.
"Shopping centres are evolving as much more than a place to shop. Nationally, we continue to see the redevelopment of major regional shopping centres to provide a greater blend of retail, leisure and commercial activities to meet changing customer demands,” he says.