The Tax Office will move from Civic to a new building in Barton in 2025 after signing a 15-year lease for the site, removing one of Canberra's major employers from the city's CBD.
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An email to Australian Taxation Office staff on Tuesday confirmed the agency, which employs more than 2000 staff in the ACT, will relocate to 15 Sydney Avenue.
Site owner and property developer Doma will soon begin construction of the new building, which the Tax Office said would be large enough to fit all Canberra-based staff. The lease will cost the ATO $323.4 million.
The decision to leave Civic ends a two-year search for new offices as the agency looked to bring its employees - currently spread across two separate sites in Civic - into a single building.
ATO chief operating officer Jacqui Curtis and chief finance officer Janine Bristow in the email told staff the new building would feature "a contemporary, customised fit-out", and was expected to be completed in 2025.
"During the procurement process, a range of accommodation options were considered across the Canberra CBD and parliamentary triangle with a view to securing the most suitable and best value-for-money outcome for the ATO," the email from the officials said.
"Signing a lease for this new, purpose-built building will achieve this, as well as deliver high-quality office facilities and efficient use of office space.
"We expect the Barton site will make use of flexible design and unallocated workspaces.
"If required, it will have the ability to support growth in the future with a ratio of less than one desk per staff member. This will enable the best use of space in the new building and is consistent with the approach we have taken for new and refurbished buildings over the past few years."
It has been expected within property circles that the ATO would opt for a move to Barton in its search for new Canberra offices, which began in 2020 as the expiry date for its leases in Civic neared.
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The 11,560 square metre Barton site, on the corner of Sydney Avenue and National Circuit, will locate the ATO near Parliament House and other major federal employers including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Prime Minister's Department, and the Attorney-General's Department.
Doma had marketed the site as a potential location for new offices of up to 40,000 square metres in one or two buildings catering to Commonwealth and private sector tenants.
The ATO, a major employer in the CBD, will be based in Civic until 2025.
It announced in April it had extended by five years the leases at its current offices in Narellan Street (now expiring May 2027) and Genge Street (November 2027).
The leases were previously due to expire this year, but the Tax Office said it wanted to provide staff with more certainty while its Canberra leasing process continued.
Australian Services Union official Jeff Lapidos, who represents ATO staff, said the new building in Barton offered less access to public transport, less early bird parking and no quick access to shops during lunch breaks.
The ATO had defied the usual principles for employers of choice by shifting its national office premises to the Barton site, he said.
"The ASU understands it is well located for the ATO's statutory officers and Senior Executive Service to brief government and Parliament," Mr Lapidos said.
"But we don't understand why the ATO extended the leases on its current buildings in Civic until May and November 2027 when it has been planning a move to Barton in 2025."
Asked by The Canberra Times last week whether it would soon announce a relocation to Barton, the Tax Office said its procurement process remained ongoing, and it could not comment until it was finalised.
The ATO first invited commercial property owners to express interest in providing offices in 2020, saying it would prefer a single building of about 32,000 square metres.
Its search for office space created a lucrative prospect for the commercial property scene in Canberra. The ATO's 15-year lease at its Genge Street office was valued at nearly $311m in 2020. A 15-year lease for the Narellan Street building was valued at more than $173m that year.
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