AFL weighs headquarters switch as site to be redeveloped
The newly built Melbourne Quarter Tower has emerged as the preferred option for the expanding AFL operation as its Docklands home is in line to face the wreckers ball.
The AFL is eyeing a shift out of its Docklands headquarters to a brand new office block developed by Lendlease in Melbourne’s Collins Street.
The AFL Commission, chaired by the departing Richard Goyder, must still sign off on the shift to the offices at 695 Collins Street, with the potential move being kept under wraps by both parties, with the parties declining to comment.
But the Melbourne Quarter Tower, which is a part of a wider $2.5ha urban precinct that Lendlease has almost finished developing, has emerged as the leading option for the AFL, though an agreement is yet to be reached.
The distance from the AFL’s existing Docklands digs to its likely new home is the length of about five MCG-sized football fields, making the move relatively seamless to execute for AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and his team.
By the time any shift is undertaken it is likely that Transurban chairman and ex-Geelong president Craig Drummond will have replaced the veteran AFL chairman, Mr Goyder. Mr Drummond’s nomination will be presented at the AFL’s annual general meeting in March.
A move had been expected as a joint venture between Victorian state body Development Victoria and the AFL last month launched a search for a development partner to revamp the entire Docklands precinct where AFL House now sits.
The AFL, advised by Colliers, has been scouring the city for options and also looked at a complex proposed by the listed Abacus and Walker Corporation, which is also on Collins Street, as a potential home.
But that scheme is still on the drawing board and industry players said the AFL had zeroed in on the Lendlease tower, which also houses Google and the Seven Network which, alongside Foxtel, holds the broadcast rights to the football code.
Leasing at Melbourne Quarter Tower is handled by JLL and Colliers.
Development Victoria and the AFL are separately hunting for an experienced developer to overhaul a key part for the Docklands waterfront that they control. Now home to Marvel Stadium, AFL House and the former Seven broadcast centre, the redevelopment of the two sites at 140 and 160 Harbour Esplanade has the potential to reshape the area. The EOI process, via Cushman & Wakefield, for those sites closed on December 5, with short-listed developers to then be invited to submit detailed proposals.
Lendlease has long been after tenants to fill up the 69,000sq m office tower, which is owned by South Korean pension fund NPS. Medibank is in the $1.2bn block as anchor tenant, and Google is on the top three floors.
The Stokes-controlled Seven Network also moved from its former digs next to the Docklands stadium into the Lendlease tower. It shifted out of No.160 Harbour Esplanade, which is owned by Development Victoria, as part of plans to allow the agency to revitalise the Docklands stadium and waterfront.
Designed by architects Woods Bagot, parts of the 34-level Lendlease building could be customised to suit the AFL.
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