Holden moved from art deco to state-of-the-art yesterday, with the opening of its new headquarters building at 191 Salmon Street, Port Melbourne.

More than 1,500 employees will be consolidated under one roof for the first time since Holden’s heritage listed headquarters were built beside the new site in the 1930s.

The building construction by Baulderstone Hornibrook was part of a $200 million redevelopment of the Fishermans Bend business precinct. Funded by Mirvac Group, the building is leased back by Holden as part of a long-term lease arrangement.

Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney, joined the Premier of Victoria, the Hon Steve Bracks, and Mirvac Managing Director, Greg Paramor to officially open the building.

Mr Mooney said yesterday the new building, known within Holden as HQ191, celebrated a new phase in Holden’s history in Australia.

“The move comes at a pivotal point in our history as we prepare for an all-new Commodore range in 2006,” Mr Mooney said.

“HQ191 creates greater opportunity for Holden teams to work more collaboratively and openly and comes on top of our own $2 billion, five-year investment programme for Australia by 2006.

“The Saab team will also move into HQ191 bringing GM brands together for the first time. The brands continue to operate separately from the customer’s perspective while achieving significant savings by sharing back office and administrative functions.”

To coincide with the move, Holden announced a change of its company name to GM Holden Ltd, restoring the reference to parent company General Motors which had been part of the Australian name for all but nine years of its ownership of Holden since 1931.

HQ191 provides Holden with 20,400 square metres of office space inside the three storey building which includes two full-height atrium spaces and links to the new multi-storey car park.

The project represented the largest building works programme for Holden’s corporate headquarters since its original art deco buildings were built. Mirvac (formerly James Fielding Group) was selected by Holden in 2002 after a national search for a compatible and suitably qualified partner to deliver the company’s corporate statement.

Greg Paramor, Managing Director of Mirvac Group said today: “We have worked tirelessly over the past two and a half years to make GM Holden’s dream a reality and in doing so we have exceeded GM Holden’s expectations, delivering a unique building and creating an exceptional investment for our own investors.”

Holden’s HQ191 offers some of the latest workplace technology and innovation including –

• A voice over IP telephony system which enables all communications to be transferred to any workstation without the need for technicians;
• Flat screen monitors on arms for desktop computer users with under desk slings for hard drives to free up desk space;
• An online centralised booking system for the Holden team to access more than 60 meeting rooms; and
• On-line fax facilities and multifunction devices which will photocopy, fax, scan and print.

The building also introduces new environmentally friendly features including –

• A rainwater landscape irrigation system which uses water from the car park roof to reduce water consumption;
• Programmed lighting system which senses the levels of external light and automatically adjusts internal light levels to compensate; and
• Roof-mounted solar panels which provide the building with hot water.

Holden employees have begun moving into the building with the final teams relocating in early July. HQ191 is adjacent to Holden’s technical centre, which will continue to be used by Holden Design and other departments.

The new headquarters is the latest long-term commitment by General Motors to Australia. An advanced $400m Global V6 engine plant began production at Port Melbourne in 2003 and Holden is amid spending $450 million in upgrade works to its vehicle manufacturing facility in Elizabeth, South Australia.

Mirvac will continue its investment in the Port Melbourne region by commencing the refurbishment of the original art deco headquarters of GM Holden and the construction of a $100 million business park to be built at 600 Lorimer Street, a site also acquired from GM Holden.