Speech at Official Opening of the new building at 376-382 New South Head Road, Double Bay
March 2007
Lesli Berger, General Manager of Fivex Commercial Property, gives a speech at the official opening of the new building at 376-382 New South Head Road, Double Bay.
INTRODUCTION
– Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Lesli Berger and I am the General Manager of Fivex Commercial Property
– We are a family business that has been in the property industry for over 30 years.
– This building recycles sewage on site, harvests rain water for potable water use, uses low energy light-fittings, an energy efficient air conditioning system, utilises passive solar design, uses only sustainable materials and was built in accordance with sustainable construction techniques and critically provides no on-site parking.
– Michael Mobbs advises me that in his opinion we have built Australia’s most sustainable multi-tenanted office building.
Thankyou’s
– Eeles Trelease architects
– Award winning architects (hopefully we’ll win a few more with this project) who came up with an amazing design that has received universal acclaim and we thank you for that.
– Bruce, Kathy and the team at Eeles Trelease it has been a pleasure to work with you and we look forward to working on future projects together.
– Built – our quality builders
– Have been a willing partner in our sustainable concept.
– The project has been built on time and on budget thanks to your ingenuity, organisational skills and professionalism.
– Michael Mobbs
– Our wonderful MC tonight.
– My sustainability coach – you are a visionary and the systems we have installed in this development are second to none. My brief to you Michael on this project was to make this a ‘truly sustainable development. ’ I believe we have achieved that brief with flying colours.
– My father Joshua Berger
– Thank you for your faith in me and for entrusting me with this project and for giving me a licence to build a truly unique development that will set a new benchmark in terms of sustainable design.
– Unfortunately, due to time constraints I cannot thank all of the many worthwhile contributions that were made by the consultant team for this project.
2 issues I wish to discuss:
- Double Bay; and
- How can we as a community ensure all new developments are sustainable?
Double Bay
Double Bay has so much potential. This building is just the first step in the renewal of Double Bay.
World wide there is resurgence in street-level retailing and a rebellion against mausoleum style mall shopping centres. Bondi Junction was the flavour of the month, but we have demonstrated that in the long-term Double Bay shopping has a life of its own and that you can enjoy tree-lined streets and charming street-level shopping opportunities all in the fresh air.
Double Bay can hold its own against the great shopping strips of the world such as Rodeo Drive.
Double Bay is a very attractive urban streetscape at ground level and what we have demonstrated is that it can also be attractive above ground level.
The role of Council is to ensure Double Bay is as competitive as possible with Bondi Junction Westfield.
If you recall the previous 1 and a half storey unsustainable red-brick bank building on our site. The building was closed off to the street, had limited openings, ignored the critical New South Head Road and Goldman Lane retail frontages, and had tiny windows
We have replaced it with a modern four storey sustainable development, with large windows, we have focused on the quality of our retail frontages, and we have activated the New South Head Road, Goldman Lane and critical Knox Street frontages in an attractive and desirable manner.
It is very satisfying for us to take a first step in revitalising the Double Bay Centre.
We have demonstrated that Property Owners in Double Bay can build beautiful buildings that are economically and environmentally sustainable.
We have attracted leading Double Bay tenants to our building. Cue Clothing Co, Varino and the Double Bay Bridge Centre have all chosen to relocate into our building and we are honoured to have you.
ANZ Bank is bringing a new banking concept to Double Bay and has committed to the top two floors of our building. We are very excited to have you and Double Bay will be the beneficiary of your tenure for years to come.
Why aren’t all new developments sustainable?
- Sustainable development costs more to build than a conventional building. We spent about a half-a-million dollar premium in order to ensure our development was “truly sustainable”. The total construction costs were approximately $5 million. That’s a 10% construction premium that most property developers simply cannot afford;
- Sustainable developments are more heavily regulated than conventional unsustainable developments. The amount of additional red tape we were forced to cut-through in order to make our sustainable development happen is unbelievable. It is not so much the cost of the red-tape that is the problem, it is more the time it takes to satisfy public servants that we have properly addressed the various rules and regulations that are applicable to our development; and
- There are no economic incentives in order to encourage developers to “go green”.
Are end users prepared to pay more for sustainable development compared to conventional buildings?
No. There is a clear market failure in that end users who benefit from the installation of sustainable technologies that minimise water and power consumption are not prepared to pay for those savings to the person that pays for their installation: the developer.
How can we redress the market failure and encourage developers to go sustainable?
- Remove significant barriers put forward by state and local government to actually achieving sustainable development;
- Critically, Governments must devise a system of incentives to make it more financially profitable for developers to build sustainable developments as opposed to conventional buildings.
Thank you for your time.
Lesli Berger