CHARTER Hall has completed a $110 million refurbishment of its commercial office tower in the Sydney CBD, to create a future-proof flexible office hub.
The refurbished tower, at 231 Elizabeth St in Sydney, is a 23,275 sqm A-grade building and will provide a flexible workspace for the NSW public sector across 14 levels of connected office space, offering a flexible, tech-enabled and sustainable workspace for approximately 2,00 public sector workers.
The changes include opening up and activating underutilised spaces on the ground floor to enable greater collaboration, including a new lobby café and large central lounge area. The use of natural materials and greenery is designed with the intention of opening the space up to the neighbouring Hyde Park, to promote wellness.
The building is now enabled to achieve a 5.5 Star NABERS Energy and 4 Star NABERS Water rating, as well as 5 Star Green Star Interiors rating.
Charter Hall’s CEO, Carmel Hourigan, described the refurbishment as “a highly collaborative process with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s Property and Development division”.
“Our depth of experience working with the public sector and existing partnership with the NSW Government allowed us to tailor the workplace design and experience to meet its current and future needs. 231 Elizabeth St has been completely revitalised, creating a high quality, tech-enabled and connected environment that is well-equipped for public sector workers to navigate the ‘new normal’ as they return to the office,” continued Hourigan.
Charter Hall currently boasts 89 leases in 31 buildings across six states and territories to government tenants, making it the countries leading provider of office space to the government. 231 Elizabeth St is one of 27 office leases to the NSW public sector for the group.
“We have proven expertise in delivering innovative workplace solutions for government, with over 360,000 sqm of office space currently under management for the public sector, and more under construction.”
“This refurbishment supports our vision to create unmatched workplace experiences for organisations in both the public and private sector, helping them to maintain engaged, productive and healthy workforces,” said Hourigan.
This long-term lease and partnership with the NSW government at 231 Elizabeth St increases the Charter Hall Prime Office Fund’s (CPOF) overall weighting of government tenants to 25.1%.
“The transformation of 231 Elizabeth St demonstrates Charter Hall’s ability to strategically identify investment opportunities. In doing so, we unlock value for our Funds by revitalising and curating existing assets to meet the specific requirements of tenant customers – in this case the NSW public sector’s need for a flexible and future-focussed agile work environment,” said Matthew Brown, head of office investment management and fund manager for CPOF.
“It’s the integrated expertise between our Charter Hall investment, asset and property management teams that produces true value for tenant customers and market-leading results for our investors,” said Brown.
