A STRONG period of staff growth and the need for offices that better reflect the nature of the practice have prompted major accounting firm Deloitte to relocate its Perth operations from Central Park to Woodside Plaza.
A STRONG period of staff growth and the need for offices that better reflect the nature of the practice have prompted major accounting firm Deloitte to relocate its Perth operations from Central Park to Woodside Plaza.
The announcement follows one by KPMG, which confirmed in recent weeks the extension of its lease at Central Park until at least 2008.
Other major accounting player PricewaterhouseCoopers moved to the QV1 building just more than a year ago, while Ernst & Young will be leaving Central Park mid-2005 to move into its own building adjoining the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Woodside Plaza general manager Arthur Chemello told WA Business News there was strong interest in the building and that he expected full occupancy within months. Woodside and its allied companies occupy 80 per cent of the building.
Law firm Coors Chambers Westgarth has signed a tenancy for the 15th floor and, with Deloitte to move in, only one-and-a-half floors of office space remain.
Deloitte has signed an 11-year lease covering 3,400 square metres of floor space and will undertake a fit-out from July 1, with relocation effective from January 1 2005. Deloitte managing partner Keith Jones said the company’s Perth office had grown from 140 personnel to more than 200 during the past two years.
“The relocation to Woodside Plaza will provide Deloitte with more than 20 per cent additional and efficient floor space, which will support our medium-term growth plans,” he said.
“By relocating and reconfiguring the Perth office we will be able to support a further 30 per cent increase in personnel.”
Woodside was the stand-out option in a survey of Deloitte staff requirements late last year, largely because of the building’s internal facilities, large floor plates and open floor plan, Mr Jones said.
Deloitte was one of the first tenants in Central Park and has occupied the space for 11 years. Mr Jones said Deloitte had considered reconfiguring the current space in Central Park, but in the end the Woodside building proved to be the best option.
Perth has the highest percentage of vacant office space of any capital city in Australia – a five-year high of 12.2 per cent.
But this appears not to phase Central Park general manager Peter Zissiadis, who doesn’t expect it will take long to fill the space Deloitte will leave.
“What we see is an opportunity to provide space for existing tenants and for new tenants to come into the building. We have very good tenants who have shown a commitment to the building,” he said.
Industry sources say Central Park is on the verge of renewing leases with several major tenants.
Mr Chemello said he was “over the moon” with how the Woodside building had been operating since it opened.
“The building has been designed to high specifications in terms of fit-out, energy efficiency, security and environment,” he said.
The Deloitte move highlights the shift from old to new in Perth reported in a recent Property Australia magazine by CB Richard Ellis manager Andrew Woodley-Page.
Mr Woodley-Page said tenant reshuffling was moving towards newly renovated or built space, with not enough tenants to pick up the slack.
“That’s the key thing in Perth; it’s not so much the projects that are coming on creating supply, because they are all heavily pre-committed, it’s the space that is being left behind,” he said.
