Zurich Tower at 118 Mount Street in North Sydney officially topped out last week, ahead of schedule, with a socially-distanced ceremony a sign of the times.
Zurich Tower will become the new headquarters for Zurich Financial Services Australia.
The topping out ceremony was held to commemorate the structural completion of level 29, the highest floor of the commercial building.
In line with current restrictions on public gatherings, Roberts Pizzarotti’s CEO, Alison Mirams, joined nine other project stakeholders, including representatives of the building’s end owner, CBRE Global Investors, anchor tenant, Zurich, mayor of North Sydney Council, Jilly Gibson and NSW minister for planning and public spaces, Rob Stokes.
The ceremony was live streamed into the head office of Zurich in Switzerland and to other key stakeholders around the world.
The FJMT-designed project, developed in conjunction with White & Partners and Generate Property Group, will deliver approximately 20,600 sqm of A-Grade office space.
It was purchased under-construction by CBRE Global Investors in late 2019.
The purpose-built headquarters includes a two-level podium, café, a sky terrace, three basement car parking levels and end-of-trip facilities.
Mirams says the completion of the 29-storey structure ahead of schedule “is testament to the fact that the project has progressed well, despite all the recent challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“It is gratifying to know that we’ve played our part in keeping 350 people employed directly or indirectly during the difficult employment situation resulting from the pandemic and 1,300 since the project’s inception.”
According to Chris Johnston, CBRE Global Investors’ managing director for Australia and New Zealand, the new building “will make an important contribution to the growth and revitalisation of North Sydney”.
“North Sydney is one of Australia’s fastest-growing CBDs and as our client’s first acquisition in Australia, it represented an outstanding opportunity to invest, with both major infrastructure investments nearby and high demand for A-Grade office space outside the Sydney CBD.”