VODAFONE Hutchison Australia (VHA) has ended its hunt for a new...

VODAFONE Hutchison Australia (VHA) has ended its hunt for a new corporate headquarters after signing a 10-year lease on a 11,000sqm office space in North Sydney.

The mammoth space is located at Investa Property Group’s Ark development but is currently under construction and won’t be completed until the second quarter of 2010.

A VHA spokeswoman said the company’s employees would remain at Vodafone’s Chatswood premises and Hutchison’s St Leonard’s headquarters, both in Sydney, until the building was complete.

Once ready, some 1000 full-time VHA employees will occupy six floors from the second level of the 21 story building which also counts Coca-Cola Australia as one of its soon-to-be occupants.

However, it is unclear if staff numbers will remain at the same figure when the move to North Sydney takes place. In early June head-office staff at Hutchison and Vodafone were asked to re-apply for jobs as part of an exercise to reduce duplicated roles within the business.

VHA says it is in the final stages of its head-office staff cull but would not know how many people would be affected until early October. At the time of its merger in February, VHA had a combined workforce of 3700.

VHA has been searching since June for a large-enough office to house the merged company.

The building has been awarded a 6 Green Star Office Design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia and features a grey water recycling system, efficient lighting and controls, cycling facilities and parking and charging bays for electric and hybrid cars.