Bunnings to set up headquarters in Growthpoint development

Hardware giant Bunnings will set up its new headquarters in Growthpoint Properties' Botanicca 3 development in Melbourne's inner suburbs after signing a 10-year lease.

Bunnings will consolidate its Victorian and national store support teams, currently scattered across six different Melbourne office locations, into one new A-Grade office building at Growthpoint's 570 Swan Street Botanicca 3 development in Richmond.

Growthpoint has finished construction of Botanicca 3 in Melbourne.Credit:

"We are pleased to have agreed a long lease with Bunnings at Botanicca 3, particularly during these uncertain times, highlighting our ability to achieve leasing success in a challenging environment," Growthpoint's managing director Timothy Collyer said.

Bunnings will take about two thirds of the space available in the building, about 13,886 square metres, after signing a lease agreement starting on Monday.

The hardware retailers will become one of Growthpoint's top 10 largest tenants by income. The lease will extend the group's pro-forma portfolio weighted average lease expiry (WALE) to 6.5 years and increase occupancy across its portfolio to 96 per cent.

Bunnings' property director Andrew Marks said relocation of the group's staff was likely to take place from mid-2021.

The group was consulting with health and spatial experts to create a safe, collaborative work environment that "allows our team to seamlessly transition between home and office work", he said.

Growthpoint - which counts the similarly named heavyweight South African-listed Growthpoint REIT as its main security holder - controls a portfolio of east coast metropolitan offices and warehouses primarily leased to logistics firms.

The funds manager reported in August this year its funds from operations, the preferred earnings measure for property, was $197 million, up 10.8 per cent on the previous year.