Colliers to manage $200m medical facilities

Colliers International has been appointed to manage two new facilities for the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, which will hold a combined value of $200 million when they open next year.

The institute, formerly known as the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, will house more than 1,000 researchers and staff across two new facilities it hopes will help to establish Perth as a global centre of excellence for medical research.

The institute will open a 10-storey building at the QEII Medical Centre in Nedlands early next year, housing a number of specialised research laboratories as well as a 250-seat auditorium, a cafe and other public facilities.

It will also open a building at the soon-to-open Fiona Stanley Hospital at Murdoch, which will host 360 researchers and will be designed to enable research discoveries to be translated into clinical practice.

The Murdoch facility will also play host to the Wesfarmers Centre for Translational Research.

Colliers will take a facility management role at the two new centres, with its services including contract management, concierge services, capital and maintenance plans, health and safety audits and energy plans.

The contract marks the single biggest appointment to date for Colliers’ strategic building solutions division, which now manages a portfolio of about 370,000 square metres in Western Australia.

"These will be world-class research facilities and the management and operation of these centres requires a high level of skill and strategic thinking," Colliers strategic building solutions director Bruce Thompson said.

"It is a privilege for Colliers Inernational to partner with the institute in running them, and we are very happy to have been selected to take on the responsibility for management of such important facilities."

Construction of the two new facilities, which together span about 30,000sqm, is expected to be completed during the next six months.

The institute took on its new name earlier this month in recognition of Harry Perkins, the institute's inaugral chairman and former Wesfarmers chairman.