Attracting the right tenants and keeping them happy is an art

By Paula Stevenson, Asset Manager, Quintessential Equity

Conventional wisdom tells us real estate is all about location, location, location. But this isn’t the whole truth anymore especially in a post-pandemic world.

I have spent close to two decades in the property business and I see business owners are trying to keep pace with their employees, especially Millennials and Gen Z's, who care about their own wellbeing as much as they care about being productive and protecting the environment. Modern businesses want their office space to support the health and happiness of their people, be environmentally sustainable and offer a high level of personalisation.

Managing commercial space used to be quite a cut and dry transaction. Landlords didn’t want to get too involved and were happy to provide a basic shell and core structure. But changes to the way we work have created changes in tenant expectations, which now closely align with Quintessential Equity’s (QE) existing point of difference.

Embracing sustainability
For QE, sustainability is paramount and we want to continue to build purpose-led spaces that look after our tenants, the community and the environment.
We aim to reach a minimum of 4.5 NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating System) Energy and Green Star ratings. And we are constantly striving to do better. For our 1 Malop Street facility, we achieved a Platinum Core & Shell WELL Building Rating, which we are currently in the process of re-certifying. We have also received a WELL Health and Safety Rating, the first for our portfolio.

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Wellbeing is key
Tenants are wanting healthy buildings that help take care of the diverse needs of a workforce.

This includes facilities like smaller meeting rooms for focused work and common spaces for collaboration, green areas like green terraces, better ventilation, reduced noise levels, places to relax, focus, and space to have one-on-one interactions.

Take our 60, Moorabool Street asset as an example. This $100-million building that houses health insurer GMBHA’s headquarters offers amenities that are considered gold standard for A-grade office buildings in Geelong. It features 78 bike spaces, 15 showers and 96 exclusive lockers.

The GMHBA staff who work in the building will have access to collaborative and breakout spaces, parents’ room, a reflection room, and a kitchen and dining area that opens into a podium area with picnic tables above Moorabool Street.

Personal touch
As we spend most of our working week in the office we like to get our tenants involved in any changes that may affect the building and welcome suggestions to better improve the amenity.

We organise quarterly meetings with our tenants to check up on any issues they may be facing and also make sure that their space is working for them.

It's not a typical tenant-landlord relationship or a mere financial transaction, we like to have a more personalised approach to managing our assets.
Fit-outs are also factored into our deals. We can pay tenants’ contractors directly for fit-outs and a part of it can be offered as rebates against their rent. There are multiple options that we offer.

Contact us here to discuss our available commercial spaces.

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