National Support Centre –2018

Client need

Both new facilities were considered urgent and needed to be operational within the next 6 months. The two requirements were unrelated and ostensibly, there was no need for collocation however if beneficial, they could be.

Our client initially engaged Counsel to procure suitable space for the first requirement and later, expanded the brief to include the national support centre.

Our approach

After we developed an initial project brief, we provided an initial, high level financial sensitivity analysis based on various Australian metropolitan city locations followed by requests for information (RFI’s) issued to our database of landlords and agents in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. We reported the initial responses to our client.

After the brief was refined to increase the area required and to exclude all locations except metropolitan Sydney, we reissued the RFI. We provided a shortlist recommendation based on financial and non-financial considerations after we received the revised responses.

Our value

By applying the leverage we developed through our confidential, competitive search process, we negotiated a 5-year sublease on behalf of our client over approximately 5,000 sqm of A-Grade office space at Rhodes in Western Sydney with an expansion right of an additional 2,000 sqm. The commercial terms represented a substantial discount to the prevailing market terms.

In addition to the attractive commercial terms, the transaction included a high-quality, existing fitout which allowed the business to commence operation within 3 months of executing a heads of agreement, a critical requirement.

In summary, as a result of this transaction, we were able to secured our client a saving of in excess of $12 million compared with the prevailing market metrics, over a 5-year lease term.