West Leederville will get its first shopping centre in August next year following moves by supermarket giant Coles to anchor a new $30 million retail and office complex under construction at 115 Cambridge Street.
West Leederville will get its first shopping centre in August next year following moves by supermarket giant Coles to anchor a new $30 million retail and office complex under construction at 115 Cambridge Street.
Coles has signed a 15-year lease to occupy a 2,500 square metre store on the ground floor, to be surrounded by about 1,000sq m of space for specialty stores and two upper levels of office/medical space totalling 2,000sq m.
Private property developer Windsor Knight bought the site at the end of 2004 with the intention of building a neighbourhood shopping centre and office hub after perceiving a lack of convenient shopping and modern office space in the suburb.
Windsor Knight Properties managing director Greg Pearce told WA Business News the area had a large population catchment and believed the building would be a major catalyst for further development along the strip.
The private developer and owner of the Balmoral Hotel in Victoria Park is already familiar with the suburban retail sector, having signed Coles for his shopping centre on the corner of Angelo and Anstey streets in South Perth, which opened last year.
Mr Pearce has also developed Target-anchored shopping centres in Kalgoorlie and the outer suburbs of Adelaide in addition to smaller developments in NSW.
“I think this development provides a dramatic change to what is quite a degraded area, and will spark a systematic upgrade of Cambridge Street,” Mr Pearce said.
“Once you get that level of commitment such as Coles, it increases the value of properties in the vicinity and changes the way people view the suburb.”
Agent Savills is seeking tenants, including a cafe, pharmacy and newsagent for the ground floor, and says it has already received strong interest for the upper floors from medical services providers, which are keen to be located close to St John of God Hospital in Subiaco.
Coles’ decision to move into the suburb mirrors that of Australia Post, which recently signed on to anchor a 4,000sq m building by Shean Properties at 1 Cambridge Street.
Australia Post will be moving 200 of its commercial administration staff to the building in the first quarter of 2007, and will soon have an extra floor of 1,239sq m in size available for lease.
Other new office developments close by include a two-storey complex at 11 Cambridge Street due to be completed in April 2007 with space available through agents NSC Corporate, and Northwood Rise at 135-139 Cambridge Street, comprising ground floor office space with 10 residential apartments above.
