Geelong going green

The new WorksSafe Victoria headquarters is being given a substantial green push, thanks to funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). The CEFC is lending property manager Quintissential Equity (QE) $68 million to ‘stretch’ the design of the $120 million, 14-level commercial office tower to a market-leading 5.5-star standard under the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS).

As a result of the CEFC investment, the property at 1 Malop Street will be the first Victorian multistorey commercial property outside of Melbourne’s CBD to achieve a 5.5-star rating.

The property will merge the original heritage Dalgety & Co building into a landmark property consisting of some 15,500 m² of CBD Property Council of Australia (PCA) A-grade office accommodation.

CEFC Chief Origination and Transactions Officer Paul McCartney said that ensuring the building was constructed to a higher standard than otherwise planned reflected the CEFC’s strategy to drive Australia’s commercial property sector towards carbon-neutral buildings.

“This exemplar building will demonstrate the considerable attractions of energy-efficient and more liveable work environments,” McCartney said.

“Higher rated properties consistently outperform their lower rated counterparts with a range of ongoing benefits, including the ability to command higher returns and attract long-term quality tenants, while operating with lower energy use costs and lower emissions outputs. It is also a great demonstration of how clean energy solutions can work to give an historic landmark a new lease on life as a low-carbon building.”

The financing is part of a broader CEFC focus on working with building owners and developers to provide financing solutions across a range of property subsectors to help drive higher industry-wide energy efficiency standards.

“High-quality urban design will become increasingly important as the population densities of our cities grow. Building innovation undertaken now immediately benefits today’s workforce and helps develop a smarter working environment for the cities of tomorrow,” McCartney said.

“This is especially important since many commercial buildings can have a lifespan of more than 40 years.”

The project will create around 180 construction jobs at peak construction and will support another 1000 jobs once complete.

Factors that lift Malop Street’s base building NABERS energy performance rating to 5.5 stars from 5 stars are:

• replacing a 600 kW air-cooled chiller with a 900 kW water-cooled chiller and 1500 kW cooling towers;
• enlarging pipework sizing and upgrading all pumps to reduce energy usage;
• adding a proprietary central plant controller to optimise the performance of chillers, pumps and cooling towers;
• replacing two 381 kW standard water heaters with two 432 kW high-efficiency water heaters;
• replacing 3500 m² of base building lighting with low-energy light fittings;
• significantly increasing photovoltaic coverage to the roof and including higher efficiency systems;
• upgrading the facade to include thermally broken mullions and higher performance glazing.