Emergency services responded to reports of a building fire at 3.30am and the initial firefighting crews on site found the first floor well alight.
More than 30 firefighters from across western Sydney battled the blaze for three hours, gaining control just before 6.30am, however the office was destroyed with adjoining businesses sustaining smoke and water damage.
At 4am, acting on information provided, officers from Bankstown Police Area Command went to a home in Bowden Boulevarde and arrested a 59-year-old man and took him to Bankstown Police Station and their inquiries are continuing.
One ground floor tenant who did not want to be identified, said he wasn’t sure he would reopen his business because he expected most of his stock to be unsellable due to smoke or water damage.
“I will probably be out of a job,” he told the Torch.
Waiting for police finish their investigation at the site, Mark Newey from strata managers WT Newey and Co, said it was a huge blow to the nearly 20 businesses operating at the centre, especially coming just before Christmas.
“We do have an electrician on site and once we have clearance from them on the electrics, the ground floor businesses should be able to operate again,” he said.
“But unfortunately we have had to secure the stairway access to businesses on the first floor because of the damage involved.”
