Fortis Begins Double Bay Office Build

Sydney developer Fortis has turned dirt on its speculative Double Bay office build and launched the luxury strata office block to market. 

The Lawton Hurley-designed commercial building at 2-10 Bay Street is the latest in a string of Fortis developments along the well-heeled street of Double Bay, including its headquarters.

The development will comprise luxury hotel-style boutique suites and full-floor offices at an average price of $3 million. Construction is slated for completion in early 2025. 

Fortis commercial leasing and acquisitions spokesman Matthew Barakat said Ruby House had been designed with “investment offices front of mind”.

“We have seen significant demand from these offices looking to shift from core hubs within the CBD and instead occupy 100 to 250sq m of space in amenity-rich buildings in village-like precincts such as Double Bay,” Barakat said.  

“Occupiers of Ruby House will have access to elevated services you’d typically find in premium-grade towers within the CBD, including hotel-style wellness facilities, dedicated concierge services and private parking.”

▲ Hotel-style amenities will set a benchmark for strata office at Ruby House, the first strata office to be developed at Double Bay since 2009.

Barakat said Ruby House would be the first strata office development in the Double Bay area for a “significant time”.

“The strata office market in Double Bay is a small and tightly held market predominantly made up of B and C-grade stock,” he said. 

“These offices have traditionally come through secondary commercial buildings which were later strata subdivided and sold down rather than purpose-built for strata offices.

“Traditionally, businesses looking to occupy space in Double Bay have been well capitalised.

“It was a natural progression to strata selldown Ruby House as we found through the marketing process of our other Double Bay developments that almost all prospective office tenants were requesting to purchase their office space rather than lease.”

▲ Rooftop terraces will connect to office to provide outdoor space for employees.

Double Bay is in the box seat to capitalise on the flight to quality in the fringe office sector as employers look to lure and retain quality talent. The area has an office vacancy rate of less than 3 per cent compared to the CBD vacancy rate of about 11.5 per cent. 

“Strata office supply within the Sydney CBD financial core has been reduced by approximately 25 per cent during the past 5 years due to compulsory acquisition of multiple assets for the Sydney Metro North and West projects as well as amalgamations for ‘tall tower’ redevelopment,” according to CBRE associate director Harry George.  

“The Sydney City Council is now discouraging strata subdivision within the Sydney City LGA. Subsequently, the restriction of supply is holding values and in fact driving demand for strata office particularly within amenity-rich city-fringe areas such as Double Bay.”