![APPROVED: An artist's impression of the EJE Architecture-designed Darby Plaza office building in Hunter Street. The building sits partly on the old rail corridor. APPROVED: An artist's impression of the EJE Architecture-designed Darby Plaza office building in Hunter Street. The building sits partly on the old rail corridor.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/TFWurqJd3WWgt5tunziPf4/55695efa-abc6-49d4-bb5e-fa7739501e3e.jpg/r0_0_4000_2098_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Work has started on Newcastle's latest big office building, defying the shift to work-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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GWH Build, headed by high-profile Hunter developer Hilton Grugeon, has broken ground on the eight-storey Darby Plaza building in Hunter Street after securing an anchor tenant.
The project, which includes 8000 square metres of office space and 138 parking spots, comes at the same time as DOMA Group continues work on its 12-storey office building next to the Newcastle Interchange.
Darby Plaza is destined to bring hundreds of workers back into the precinct around City Hall, against the tide of government and private-sector office staff shifting to Newcastle West.
GWH director Jonathan Craig said the firm was fielding interest in the building from local companies looking to relocate.
He would not identify the anchor tenant, but the Newcastle Herald has been told it is Life Without Barriers.
Mr Craig said the death of hot-desking meant companies needed the same amount of floor space, even if not everyone was in the office all the time.
"As time's marched on, it's becoming obvious that businesses are looking at their space requirement," he said.
"We're seeing more people having two days in the office then three days out of the office, but they still have their own desk, not a communal one, and that's what's kept space requirements at a similar level to pre-COVID.
"I'm not going to say that's the new norm, because it's too early to say that, but that's what's coming to the forefront at the moment."
![DIGGING IN: An excavator on-site at the Darby Plaza project on Thursday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers DIGGING IN: An excavator on-site at the Darby Plaza project on Thursday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/TFWurqJd3WWgt5tunziPf4/0eeac351-489f-448a-ac05-ec4bd0d2c017.jpg/r0_256_5009_3339_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The prospective tenants had "typically outgrown their current space, which is positive, very positive".
Mr Craig said GWH would have started work in the middle of the year but had been waiting on Transport for NSW construction approvals relating to the light rail line.
Darby Plaza includes a new landscaped public space connecting Hunter Street with Wharf Road.
The building site encompasses part of the former heavy rail corridor near the junction of Hunter and Darby streets.
Mr Grugeon said Newcastle did not have a "huge over-supply" of A-grade office space.
"People won't need as much office accomodation as they did pre-COVID, but it's not that there's no demand any more," he said.
Business owners' confidence in the ecvonomy rebounded strongly across the state in the September quarter, according to Business NSW's latest survey of sentiment, but the picture in Newcastle was less rosy.
Capital spending was down in 38.5 per cent of businesses in the city, and only 20.5 per cent reported an improvement. Only 17.1 per cent indicated an increase in sales revenue and 7.3 per cent an increase in staff.
About 40 per cent were more negative about the economy, compared with just 22.2 per cent who perceived an improvement.
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