Poly Australia to build Melbourne’s first speculative office tower

With Melbourne’s office vacancy rate at a historic low and 80 per cent of the city’s half a million square-metre development pipeline snapped up, market sentiment is understandably high. So high that developer Poly Australia is pushing ahead with the construction of a 40,000-square-metre, A-grade office tower at 1000 La Trobe Street, Docklands, without an anchor tenant pre-committed to the project. Set to be the first major tower in the Digital Harbour Precinct, the 23-storey building’s average floor plate will be 2100 square metres. A 700-square-metre area will be dedicated to coworking and third spaces for tenants. Food-and-beverage facilities, retail services and other amenities will make up the ground-floor tenancy mix, while an on-site gym and end-of-trip facilities will be on the second floor. Construction of the development is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2019 and is due to be completed in 2021.