$50m William Square makeover complete

Private real estate and investment firm Warrington Property has completed its $50 million redevelopment of the William Square office building in Northbridge, and has appointed agents to lease the remaining vacant space.

The mixed-use building at 235 William Street was purchased by Warrington Property in 2015 for more than $100 million. 

The redevelopment involved the refurbishment and upgrade of 21, 850 square metres of the building’s net lettable area, which comprised all public spaces and 1,500sqm of ground floor retail.

Construction works were undertaken by SHAPE Australia and Hoskins Contracting, which included the upgrade of the lobby, replacement of shopfronts and increasing trading areas for the 10 ground floor tenancies, the installation of new ceilings and end-of-trip facilities, as well as the repositioning of the main entry forecourt and plaza to create new all-weather public amenity spaces.

Among the tenants at William Square tenants is the Australian Taxation Office, which committed to 12,500sqm across a 10.5-year lease in 2015 and maintained 100 per cent of its business operations during the 18-month revamp.  

In early 2016, the state government’s Crime and Corruption Commission pre-committed to a 15-year lease across 3,414sqm on the building’s fifth floor.

2018 Rising Stars winner SPH architecture + interiors designed the office fitout for the CCC, which relocated from a building on St Georges Terrace.

The capital works program employed 1,400 people, with the office component currently accommodating 1,300 ATO and CCC employees, with capacity for a further 500 people when fully leased.

Warrington Property director David Zimmermann said the repositioned William Square office building provided tenants with all the benefits of a centrally located and well-connected A-grade building at a significant saving to both CBD and West Perth rents and outgoings.

William Square has some of the largest floor plates in the CBD, according to Warrington Property, ranging from 3,414sqm to 4,110sqm and has a five-star NABERS rating (a national energy rating for commercial buildings on a scale of zero to six stars).

The group has appointed CBRE office leasing director Lachlan Lewis as the exclusive leasing agent for the remaining vacant office space.