Dan Wilkie

UPDATED: ASX-listed apartments developer Finbar Group expects to start building its $300 million, 39-storey Civic Heart project in South Perth later this year, after Planning Minister Rita Saffioti superseded local planning authorities and approved the development.

Primewest is spinning out five of its office assets in Perth and Brisbane into a new publicly listed fund, with the new trust’s portfolio valued at around $285 million.

An industrial property in Malaga has sold for $7.5 million, while a bulky goods property tenanted by furniture retailer Early Settler and homewares shop Adairs has been sold to a local investor for $6.7 million.

Perth’s embattled CBD retail market is undergoing a bottom-up revival, with strong enquiry from prospective food-and-beverage operators despite a number high-profile chain stores closing their doors.

Perkins Builders has unveiled a pair of significant contract wins, with the Bunbury-headquartered construction group to deliver new aerobridges for Perth Airport's international terminal and non-process infrastructure for Albemarle Corporation’s $1 billion Kemerton lithium processing plant.

Rental vacancies continue to fall in Perth’s residential property market, with competition between tenants ramping-up, particularly in sought-after locations.

A series of large-scale residential and commercial projects are expected to get under way in Perth this year with a development pipeline nearing $2 billion in value.

Local film production company Legend Media Group has gained Chinese approval for its first Australian-Chinese co-production feature film Outback Dragon, slated to start filming in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Perth later this year.

A Perth-based company has developed a new device it says cuts tradies’ exposure to silica dust, which has been responsible for the rising incidence of silicosis among building and construction workers.