Owner-occupier boost for Subiaco

A busy Subiaco intersection is reaping the benefits of an increasingly tight CBD office market, which is driving smaller businesses into suburban locations and encouraging them to become owner-occupiers.

The Subiaco Redevelopment Authority (SRA) recently sold a 1,731 square metre block in front of Waldecks, on the corner of Hay Street and Roberts Road, to the Australian Property Alliance, a development and marketing organisation, for $2.3 million. The site will be developed into a $9 million office with a syndicate of seven owner-occupiers.

Australian Property Alliance managing director Paul Bitdorf said no office space would be made available to the market and that all parties involved in the syndication would be occupants in the building.

“A structure like this represents an opportunity for smaller area takers to get space in a new building and obtain very substantial savings because they are getting the space at a wholesale price,” he said.

“The site is quite an unusual boomerang shape and the building we are going to develop is going to be a real landmark for Subiaco – lots of glass, every level smaller than the one before it, an external evacuation staircase and a large deck.”

Insurance premium funder Alliance Finance Corporation Limited managing director, Martin Kane, confirmed to WA Business News that Alliance Finance was one of the participants in the syndicate.

“We were looking at a West Perth site, which we put a deposit on, but the City of Perth didn’t allow us to put enough parking on the site, so we have come to Subiaco,” Mr Kane said. “We have simply outgrown our space in West Perth.”

ASX-listed Alliance Finance last week announced a merger with Centrepoint Finance.

The Hay Street/Roberts Road/Railway Road corner is the location of the CSC building, which was sold by East Asia Property Group to DB Real Estate Australia on behalf of AXA Australia, for $21.1 million last year.

CSC has a 10-year lease on the building.

Last week, the SRA announced the last commercial site in Subiaco for sale, a 2,917sq m site on the corner of Hay Street and Roberts and Railway roads.