COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia has leased 8500 square metres of refurbished office space within the Collins Street building that once acted as Melbourne’s stock exchange. The lease, for levels 6 to 10, are for an initial 10-year period. CBA is paying rent of $385 per square metre, per annum, presumably prior to incentives (discounts offered off this “face” rent, common in most CBD leases nowadays). Australand purchased the vacant building from Asian investors last year, which failed to relaunch the building as an apartment project. Sources say that residential conversion would never have worked given the building only has a handful of car spaces. [...]
