Rear Window
New Corrs HQ shows the power of Collins St
Corrs CEO Gavin MacLaren pays his lawyers like bankers. Now, the firm wants to work near them too.
Mark Di StefanoColumnistThere’s no law firm seemingly so focused on the future than Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
The firm’s decision last month to extend CEO Gavin MacLaren’s contract four years before expiry remains baffling to many in the fraternity – literally no one is used to an arrangement that could see a CEO or managing partner lock in tens of millions of dollars in pay well into next decade.
Chief executive of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Gavin MacLaren. Eamon Gallagher
Apart from trying to justify this to his clients and junior lawyers, MacLaren also needs to find a new headquarters for the Melbourne-based firm. We already knew Corrs paid its lawyers like bankers. Soon, it’ll have them working alongside them too.
See, the nation’s best-paid solicitors are currently headquartered at 567 Collins St, on that street’s decidedly less fashionable end. But with the lease due to expire in 2027, Corrs is thinking bigger.
Commercial property insiders tell us MacLaren had been in talks to move the firm’s HQ to the top floors of a brand spanking new building at nearby 435 Bourke St. The $1 billion project in the middle of the Melbourne CBD is owned by Cbus Property, with Multiplex building a design by the award-winning Bates Smart. Apparently, it’s one of the first office towers in the world with a “solar skin”, that is, outer solar panels.
But who cares about the amenities. Sometime recently, Corrs walked out of negotiations. A Corrs spokesman confirmed the firm exited in a statement. “We are now in negotiations to move into the upper floors of a building at the top end of Collins Street which better meets the firm’s needs.”
And of course. Everyone knows Bourke Street is not the eastern end of Collins Street, which the pricey Melbourne address of everyone serious about being serious. Sources suggest Corrs has been looking at 120 Collins St.
For proximity to this seat of power, corporates pay a premium of some 10 per cent, just to get ‘Collins Street’ on their letterhead. Some, like Westpac, have gone so far as to construct pricey atriums through other people’s properties to turn Russell Street edifices into Collins Street facades.
Is it ridiculous? Absolutely. But an undeniable fact of Melbourne life. One which we’d entirely expect a player like Corrs to buy into.
Legal rivals like Ashurst and DLA Piper already call it home. It’s also the home of those Corrs thinks are its rivals, like Citi, UBS, Jarden and Goldman Sachs. And anyway, what price can you put on morning macchiatos with clients and chance encounters over late-lunch that can turn into deals?
This was seemingly the reason MacLaren signed a long-term lease to move the firm’s Sydney HQ into the newly-refurbed AMP Quay Quarter Tower in 2022. Now, Corrs lawyers ride elevators with Deloitte consultants and bankers from Barrenjoey and Barclays. Nothing makes money like proximity to money.
It’s common practice for commercial property deals to fall-over, or to be renegotiated, particularly in the current environment. But we’re told MacLaren’s decision to bail from the 435 Bourke project has naturally angered Cbus Property, now left without a premium client for the upper floors of its expensive new office tower.
Though it still has the Commonwealth Bank, which signed on as a tenant last year. CommBank’s currently splayed around various locations, including Docklands. And, well, anything’s a step up on that.
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