[ City Central ] Masterplan Thread

[rubegoldbergdevice]

Not too crap but why always with these poxy pods? They look retarded and try-hard.

[rhino]

They look like the city building equivalent of the lean-to. "We needed more room, but couldn't work out how to redesign the place, so we just added a pod".

[Ben]

I suspect they've scored the 30,000sqm ATO lease that has been thrown around for a few months now. That is, of course, unless someone else is looking but not advertising the fact.

Today's AFR called the 15,000sqm Origin lease "on hold" rather than scrapped.

I think it may be not the ATO, as in the council doc's they are reducing the amount of letable space as per tenant requirements? I think this buildings was only 20 something thousand? time will tell. Eithier way this will styart later this year which will be good to see City Central moving along again.

[AtD]

I hope it isn't the ATO because then they'd be backing another building.

[skyliner]

I suspect they've scored the 30,000sqm ATO lease that has been thrown around for a few months now. That is, of course, unless someone else is looking but not advertising the fact.

Today's AFR called the 15,000sqm Origin lease "on hold" rather than scrapped.

I read about the ATO as well - but I don't see this bldg having 30 000sq. m that they want - suggests another bldg might stand a chanmce of commencement.
Like Rube said - don't like the pods - they look like unnecesary protruberances thatv distract from the vertical lines of the bldg.

Excellent to hear more abouit CC.

ADELAIDE - TOWARDS A GREATER CITY SKYLINE

[Benski81]

Yep I think everyone agrees the pods are like crop circles completely pointless and a total mystery.

Good to see more happening at city central but enough is enough now with glass boxes, can we please have some more curved lines in our future architecture.

[rubegoldbergdevice]

can we please have some more curved lines in our future architecture.

Bring it! Curves, however, cost money...

[monotonehell]

I'm going to go out on a limb (in in a pod) here, and say that I don't mind this incarnation of the pods. There was a previous version that contrasted too harshly, but this version is subtle enough, while adding a little interest to the fascia. Are you guys sick of stark flat expanses of glass yet? We've been doing them since.. when.. Mies?

[Omicron]

I'm going to go out on a limb (in in a pod) here, and say that I don't mind this incarnation of the pods. There was a previous version that contrasted too harshly, but this version is subtle enough, while adding a little interest to the fascia. Are you guys sick of stark flat expanses of glass yet? We've been doing them since.. when.. Mies?

Tall, thin, flat expanses of glass are permissible - stumpy ones are not. This is stumpy, which is probably why the pods exist to break up what would be an even more dreadful boxy thing. Unfortunately, it seems like a half-baked attempt that was used on CC-Whatever-that-one-is-on-KWS, and as appears to be the norm with Woods Bagot in Adelaide, if they get away with it once, they'll try to get away with it four hundred times over.

Did I mention I find Woods Bagot to be hilariously unimaginative, and hardly deserving of the term 'architect', especially when it comes to Adelaide?

[rubegoldbergdevice]

Did I mention I find Woods Bagot to be hilariously unimaginative, and hardly deserving of the term 'architect', especially when it comes to Adelaide?

Couldn't agree more. They kinda represent what's wrong with Adelaide in their own way.

And yet they can pull out a (cancelled) 1400 metre job for Dubai. WTF?

[rubegoldbergdevice]

Are you guys sick of stark flat expanses of glass yet? We've been doing them since.. when.. Mies?

And surely that's not the ONLY alternative we can come up with?????

[Ben]

Towers 4 & 7 are next

ATO backs new $200m Adelaide office building

Russell Emmerson From: The Advertiser March 17, 2010 12:57PM

ADELAIDE'S newest office building has been given the green light with the signing of a 15-year lease by the Australian Taxation Office.

The lease gives Aspen Group the precommitment it needs to start building Tower 8, the latest instalment in its City Central masterplan.

The Tax Office will take up 30,000 sq m in the 36,000 sq m building, but Aspen would only confirm it was currently negotiating a lease for the remaining area and would not discuss potential lessors.

The project, expected to cost up to $200 million, also involves a fitout that industry sources say could cost up to $50 million.

Aspen's property chief executive Jonathan Timms said the scale of the deal was significant on a national scale as well as sparking ``cranes on the skyline''.

"From an Adelaide perspective, you would have to look prior to the global financial crisis to see anything like this,'' he said.

"Our City Central development is a major component of the Aspen Development Fund and this... is a tremendous result for the fund as well as for the Aspen Group.''

Aspen's City Central development covers the city block skirted by Waymouth, King William, Franklin and Bentham Streets.

Tower 8 is to be built on Franklin St frontage and will provide part of a laneway network with the existing Towers 1 and 2.

Aspen's SA general manager Ben Yates said the deal would cement the project for the city.

"Given we have a precommitment, it allows us to turn our attention to the rest of the site and turn to Towers 4 and 7,'' he said.

"We can also look at other uses for the GPO down the track.''

Development approval for Tower 8 was at first rejected by an Adelaide City Council planning meeting.

The State Government reacted by removing the Council's planning powers for all developments costing more than $10 million.

Shares in Aspen Group were trading 1.5c higher at 51c at 1.30pm, Adelaide time.

[omada]

Well I guess it is good news, but it certainly does nothing much for Adelaide's skyline, another squat, large floorplated building.

[AG]

Someone at The Australian must be very confused.

Government pre-leases anchor two large office projects

* Katherine Jimenez
* From: The Australian
* March 18, 2010 12:00AM

TWO major leasing deals have been secured in Adelaide and Canberra, soaking up a collective 51,000sq m of office space in projects yet to be built.

The Australian Tax Office has signed a pre-commitment lease for 30,000sq m in Aspen Group's $200 million office tower, in one of central Adelaide's largest leasing transactions.

In Canberra, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has chosen the yet-unbuilt NewActon Nishi office development as its headquarters, taking almost 21,000sq m.

The Nishi development, adjacent to Lake Burley Griffin, is being developed by Canberra property company Molonglo Group.

It is understood the lease term is 15 years and, based on the going rents for premium office space in the area, one agent estimates the rent could range from $420 a square metre to $450 a square metre, gross.

Nishi is the third stage of Molonglo's $550m mixed-use NewActon development, on the former Hotel Acton site in the city.

Stage one of the project included a mixed-use, eight-storey building that houses the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the five-star Diamant Hotel.

According to Aspen, the term of the ATO's lease for 30,000sq m of space is an initial 15 years.

It takes the total pre-commitment to 98 per cent in the yet-to-be-built project, known as Tower 8.

Aspen did not disclose the rental price but industry sources indicated it would be about $400 a square metre, net, which would equate to annual rental of $12m.

Aspen Group managing director Angelo Del Borrello said securing the ATO as the principal tenant for Tower 8 on Franklin Street enabled the building to proceed.

Tower 8 will be the biggest office development in the ACT. "The commencement of Tower 8 is testament to Aspen's ability to drive earnings growth through progressing key projects," Mr Del Borrello said yesterday.

Colliers International Adelaide negotiated the ATO lease.

Construction work on Tower 8 is expected to begin in September and to be completed about October 2012.

[Ben]

I'm loving the new ANZ signage on CC1. I'm surprised it got through council it's massive. Appears to take up half the western wall... slight exaggeration but it is massive.