The headquarters of Australia's pre-eminent public sector geoscience organisation is forecast to fetch $360 million or more when it goes on sale to an international market next month.
Geoscience Australia in Symonston will seek a new owner after investment manager Real I.S. appointed real estate services firms Colliers and JLL to handle the process, which will include an international expressions of interest campaign.
In a joint statement on Monday, the two firms said they expected the 31,053-square metre property, which is 100 per cent occupied by the federal government as Geoscience Australia's headquarters, to "attract significant national and international interest above $360m".
The building features infrastructure critical to the organisation's functions, including laboratories, offices and an antenna calibration facility.
The building is strategically located near Parliament House and for collaboration with the Earth sciences program at the Australian National University.
The building project was funded by the Commonwealth government and completed in December 1997, with Geoscience Australia occupying the building one month later.
On its website, the organisation states about 17,000 cubic metres of concrete and 1200 tonnes of structural steel were used to construct the two buildings.
"The main building is a conventional concrete structure clad with a variety of materials, including metal panels, glass, and precast and off-form concrete," it says.
"It has a curved metal deck roof featuring skylights and cowls to maximise the level of natural light within the building."
The support building is a concrete slab on ground construction with structural steel framing, cement sheet, aluminium frame glazing and lightweight concrete panels.
In its 2020-21 annual report, Geoscience Australia stated it had an operating deficit of $10.8m, before adjusting for depreciation and lease assets, compared with a $9.9m surplus in the previous financial year.
In relation to the building, it stated it implemented environmental initiatives, including replacement of fluorescent lighting for more than 20,000 square metres of office area.
There were also upgrades to the building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, including improvements to the geothermal water supply, rebalancing of floor space supply settings and system filter replacements.
Four agents at Colliers and three at JLL have been appointed to handle the sale process.
