[U/C] 42-56 Franklin Street | ~78m | 17lvls | Office

[matty]

Went past today and noticed signs going up on the existing building that demolition is underway.

[Brando]

Awesome news. I thought they were still waiting for pre commitment before commencing. Maybe they have?

[Pistol]

I saw the signs and also the workers 'working' away busily (well smoking anyway). Has there already been pre commitment? This will make a nice impact around that area.

[UrbanSG]

Well there has been no official announcement regarding any pre-commitments but who knows maybe they have managed something. Developers often demolish buildings prior to actually finalising financing for construction of the new structure. Unfortunately when an economic downturn or a recession hits we are often left with a whole lot of empty/vacant sites as a result. There is a provision requiring landscaping of such sites after a certain amount of time, however this is often not met by developers. We have a fair few empty/vacant sites right now such as 400 King William and parts of City Central precinct. In this site's case the removal of this rundown building is definately a good step even if we are left with a vacant site for a while.

[Will]

No-one has pre-commited any office space in this building, and the reason why it is being demolished I assume is that it is costing the developers money to maintain the derelict building. The current building as it stands cannot be leased, so I presume that the developers are demolishing it, to use the land as a car-park until the development can proceed. In this way, they can at-least make some money from the site.

[Will]

From a new angle:

[UrbanSG]

Thankfully it looks like this will finally be comming down soon:

[Omicron]

From that angle, the existing building isn't actually that bad.

Still, nice to see some progress on these new buildings.

[Ho Really]

Has demolition work started on this old exchange? It's not the greatest of buildings but that facade, even if rather plain, could have been a podium to a nice twenty-odd storey tower...now that I come to think of it...

Cheers

[Ben]

Has demolition work started on this old exchange? It's not the greatest of buildings but that facade, even if rather plain, could have been a podium to a nice twenty-odd storey tower...now that I come to think of it...

Cheers

yes it's in the process of being gone.

[Ho Really]

Thanks Ben.

Cheers

[Professor]

The demoloition of the old exchange building is half way completed now. Another few weeks should see the site cleared. Then hopefully something will happen.

[UrbanSG]

Yeah I noticed this over the weekend. Be good to see a pre-commitment announcement for this one. Hopefully something will happen soon. Anything that helps cover the Telstra exchange building to the north (which this one will do from the south) is a valuable addition to our skyline. Plus it will have a substantial impact from the west. Anyway wait and see I suppose.

[rhino]

Has demolition work started on this old exchange? It's not the greatest of buildings but that facade, even if rather plain, could have been a podium to a nice twenty-odd storey tower...now that I come to think of it...

Cheers

Yes, I think that could have worked quite well too.

[UrbanSG]

Not much left of the old exchange now. Should be gone in a week or so. Pic from today:



On a side note the ACC Draft Budget identifies West Terrace and this section of Franklin Street as the likely next round for underground powerlines. That can't happen soon enough imo (especially West Terrace).