(Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Group Ltd. has long been referred to as the ‘Millionaires’ Factory’ for the investment bank’s capacity to churn out some of Australian finance’s highest performers.
Now, its new 40-storey global headquarters in central Sydney has attracted another nickname with its domed roof emblazoned with the bank’s circular logo: the Minion - a reference to the cartoon characters in the Despicable Me movie franchise.
Spanning 82,000 square meters over two buildings and housing more than 9,000 staff, it brings all the firm’s staff in the city in one place. This follows years of growth that saw the Macquarie workforce previously scattered across five sites in its hometown.
The office of Chief Executive Officer Shemara Wikramanayake can be seen by all its staff in the middle of the renovated glass-atrium-topped 1920s era bank branch building.
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While the design has sparked some debate, it was probably not intentional. The firm wanted “something that was not ostentatious or loud,” said Michael Silman, Macquarie’s head of corporate real estate, in an interview.
The recent completion of the multi-billion dollar development, which connects Macquarie’s new base to the city’s main commercial mall and its new downtown rail line, comes as Sydney’s vacancy rates for commercial property remain elevated.
Premium office space has a 10.8% vacancy rate in Sydney’s center and a 43.8% vacancy among B-grade office towers in Parramatta, a government and commercial hub in Sydney’s West, according to data from real estate brokerage Ray White.
“We’re still a few steps behind in Australia” regarding tougher return-to-office mandates after the global pandemic, said Vanessa Rader, head of research at the firm.
Macquarie has no firmwide policy about office attendance for its more than 20,000 employees worldwide.
Large parts of the buildings’ lower floors given over to mixed bank-and-public use include a gallery displaying the firm’s art collection as well as meeting rooms and a 700-person-capacity events space. The theatre’s green room for presenters is a literal green color scheme, preserving the retro style and layout of one of the residential apartments that formerly sat on the skyscraper’s site.
More modern touches have earned it the country’s top real estate sustainability rating, including harvesting and reusing runoff rainwater, automated lighting and ventilation based on weather and staff usage.
The six-year development was less a play on the future of work than the commercial opportunity of having acquired the sites before the state government announced it would build a A$13 billion ($8.65 billion) metro line. Macquarie then made an unsolicited offer to co-develop this as an office-transit hub, according to Silman.
“We, as a society, like to bring people together and CBDs are great places to do that,” Silman said.
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