Viva Energy on move to the CBD

Viva Energy, formerly known as Shell Australia, is the latest blue chip tenant to make the leap from suburbs to city in a trend driven by high CBD incentives.

The global petrochemical company will move from its Redfern office in Hawthorn East to new digs at Cbus Property’s 720 Bourke Street building in the Docklands.

Viva has taken 4400 square metres in the top two floors in the Brookfield Multiplex built office, the first major signing since it was completed in July in a deal negotiated by Colliers International’s Andrew Beasley and Ben Christie in conjunction with CBRE’S Terry Dohnt.

Medibank was the original anchor tenant in Cbus’ development, committing to 30,000 square metres and enabling construction to kick off in 2010.

The leasing terms for the Viva deal are understood to be in line with current asking rents and market incentives, which are around $450 per square metre net and 30 per cent respectively.

“One of the significant drivers of leasing activity in the Melbourne CBD in 2014 has been migration of metropolitan tenants back to the CBD,” Mr Beasley said.

The building still has 12,500 square metres vacant but colliers was confident it would be filled by the end of the year, he said.

Other potential tenants looking to shift from the suburbs include GlaxoSmithKline, Phillip Morris and NEC, market sources suggest.