Redevelopment a boost for west end

Tuesday, 3 July, 2001 - 22:00
AN $11 million office redevelopment is set to add a new flavour to the CBD’s prestigious west end.

Located on the corner of Hay and Milligan streets, the development will blend old and new with a complete interior refit of existing heritage buildings and the construction of four new levels on top of the existing two-storey buildings.

“We have worked to create a synergy between the classic heritage elements of the building and the newer elements we will be placing inside and on top,” developer and architect Jean-mic Perrine said.

“It will be a high quality, boutique office development for people who don’t necessarily consider themselves as tower tenants.”

Mr Perrine, whose firm Perrine and Birch Architects is responsible for Subiaco’s Colonnade Shopping Centre and the Box Building apartments on Hay Street, said the development would have all the trappings technology could offer and some architectural signatures of his firm.

The six-storey development, which will be primarily office space with retail on the ground floor, has already begun to turn heads. Mr Perrine is presently negotiating a tenancy with M-Cor.

Mr Perrine, who is buying the property from a private owner, said the project had been in the works for just two months and expected it to take about eight months to complete.

Project plans were approved by the City of Perth early last week and a council report stated the development would enhance the west end retail precinct.

It also applauded the developer’s intentions to restore and retain the exterior of the two heritage buildings.

The Read Building, 931 Hay Street, was built in 1895 and is considered the more significant of the two as it is a good example of a Federation free classical style.

The second building, which occupies the same site, was built in the 1920s and is an example of inter-war free functionalist style.