Perth’s city skyline reads like a who’s who of Western Australia as corporate heavyweights from banking, mining, finance, insurance and law pay thousands of dollars to get their name up in lights.
Perth’s city skyline reads like a who’s who of Western Australia as corporate heavyweights from banking, mining, finance, insurance and law pay thousands of dollars to get their name up in lights.
Lavan Legal is the latest addition to the skyline, with the law firm agreeing to pay $100,000 a year to put its sign on top of the Quadrant Building at 1 William Street. This is in addition to the $122,000 the firm paid to have the sign made.
A Lavan Legal spokeswoman said the sign had been a good investment, with the firm already receiving positive feedback in the four weeks since installation.
Jones Lang LaSalle leasing director David Evans said there was a strong demand by companies for signage and naming rights to buildings, as these added value to a company by giving them a “real presence” in the marketplace.
“If they sign the building, they establish an identity and will likely use photos of the building for publicity purposes,” he said.
“There is a definite trend for buildings to be branded now. It’s a win/win for the owner, anchor tenant and even smaller tenants if they are going into a strong brand because they can say for example, ‘we’re in the BankWest Tower’. People know where they are and it strengthens their image.”
Insurance group QBE is the latest to secure naming rights to a building in the city, changing the name of Mt Newman House at 200 St Georges Terrace to QBE House for an undisclosed sum, in addition to paying $90,000 a year for signage rights.
CB Richard Ellis senior director office services Andrew Denny said naming rights and roof signage usually went hand in hand, with the fees good value for what they delivered.
“The more prominent the sign and the more prominent it is from certain directions, the higher the price,” Mr Denny said.
Mr Denny said some owners were not happy to offer naming rights to buildings because they believed the building would lose its identity or could limit the other types of tenants in the building,
“If BankWest were to relocate it would definitely want signage and naming rights. The only problem for the owner would be that its decision would rule out any other bank moving in to the building,” he said.
Savills commercial leasing director Graham Postma told WA Business News ANZ paid top rates for Allendale Square, with six figure rates not uncommon for prime locations.
He said signage and naming rights had uncapped earning potential for owners, and the value of exposure on the Perth city skyline had not yet been fully realised.
With developers Multiplex and Griffin Group awaiting an anchor tenant for the proposed City Square office building on the former Westralia site, and Hawaiian in the same position with its Bishops See project, prices for naming and signage rights on these prominent buildings are expected to reach record heights.
Hawaiian general manager property development, Stuart Duplock, indicated the firm would look at signage rights for Bishops See, expected to be in the order of several hundred thousand dollars.
“There’s no doubt this sign will be valuable, it has such prominence to the freeway that, when you’re driving north up Kwinana Freeway, the sign will hover in the windscreen of the driver’s side. That’s the unique thing about this site,” he said.
The naming rights at Bishops See needed to be considered carefully, however, with regard to potential conflict between competing business interests.
