Cbus gets going on Bourke Street

Joining a growing list of zealous CBD office developers, superannuation giant Cbus will push ahead with a new Bourke St tower. 

The property arm of the construction industry fund will develop an 18-storey office building at 550 Bourke St, on the corner of William St. 

The 25,500sq m of offices will neighbour a Cbus tower already being built at 181 William St. The two towers will be worth $480 million. 

The Bourke St development is a change from earlier plans for a hotel and offices. Cbus Property chief executive Kevin Fitzpatrick confirmed the company had approval to scrap the hotel. He revealed the towers would be jointly badged CBW. 

They will share about 4500sq m of retail space. 

The developer is in “serious discussions” with potential tenants in the legal and corporate services sector. 

“We are trying to steal the march on other office buildings being mooted,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. But they had planned to build with or without an anchor tenant to ensure both towers were finished about the same time, he said. 

The William St tower is 75 per cent committed, with Insurance Australia Group subsidiary CGU the major tenant at 27,000sq m. Legal firm Blake Waldron Dawson is taking the top four floors.