Developer Ross Pelligra is counting on wine and networking to do what plans for revamped offices and fancy apartments could not at the prestigious end of the Melbourne CBD: revive the high-profile – and problematic – 85 Spring Street office tower.

Mr Pelligra, who last year became the fourth owner in seven years of the former Esanda House when he paid about $130 million for the 16-storey office building, has secured Australia’s first, and the world’s fourth, venue for London-based wine club 67 Pall Mall as a tenant.