Wray and Associates move out of CBD

Patent attorneys Wray & Associates are upping stumps from the CBD to relocate to West Perth later this year, after signing a deal to anchor a five-storey, mixed-use building under construction at 56 Ord Street, West Perth.

The company plans to move its 70 staff from the Quadrant building, at the end of William Street, in October into 3,300 square metres of office space over three levels at the new West Perth building.

The company is effectively tripling the size of its office in anticipation of significant organic growth over the next five years off the back of WA’s chemical and bio-tech activity.

Wray & Associates partner Peter Caporn told WA Business News it had very little room to move in its current 1,100sq m office after losing out on a vacant floor above it to Rio Tinto following Alinta’s reduction.

“Simply getting access to the amount of space we needed in the short-term was a difficult task in the current market,” he said.

“The key issue for us was deciding whether to keep a CBD presence by waiting longer for a new building and paying more.”

“In the end, we realised it’s not that important.”

The company estimates it has saved around $40/sq m by moving to West Perth, instead of pre-committing to a new office development in the city.

Mr Caporn said it would save more money when it sub-lets about 1,100sq m of its space in West Perth.

And provided the market for office space in the CBD stayed strong, it would also make money on a sub-let of its Quadrant office for a short period until its lease expired in 2008.

Owners of 56 Ord Street, TRG Properties, last advertised the office space for $375/sq m net and were looking for a café tenant for the 114sq m unit at ground level.

TRG sold the incomplete building off-market for $26 million to an undisclosed investor in February, on a tight yield of six per cent.