New York state of mind:
What will it take to populate Perth’s CBD?
Perth’s neglected heritage-listed buildings offer huge opportunities to help alleviate the housing crisis and revitalise the city. But what will it take to make it a reality? Author: Mark NAglazas, December 18, 2023With a little imagination, it could be one of those cool apartments in a Manhattan-set movie — a stylishly renovated space in a classic building located in the beating heart of the metropolis with views over the city and a short stroll from restaurants, bars and retail outlets.
Unfortunately, as I climb the stairs of the Metropole Hotel in the Hay Street Mall to see for myself one of the many abandoned spaces in heritage-listed buildings across the Perth CBD, I realise that imagination has been sorely lacking in both our private and public sectors.
All agree the city needs to grow its population to help alleviate the woes of the retail sector and do its bit for the housing crisis.
Yet whenever the idea of activating the unused upper floors of charming old buildings comes up it is dismissed as a bridge too far — too expensive, too many restrictive laws, too few incentives for owners.
So when the Perth office of the commercial property giant JLL put out a press release arguing that the sadly neglected upper floors of our heritage-listed buildings in the CBD were ripe for being repurposed into apartments I had to find out if they were being serious.
“It can happen and should because we are talking about the core of the city,” says JLL’s local managing director Angelo Amara.
“And it is not quite as cost prohibitive as people think. But it will require all levels of government to get behind it and offer developers a range of incentives and concessions.”
Amara recalls the government acting during the “hotel crisis” a decade ago, where room prices shot to $1000 thanks to the mining boom, leading to a change in plot ratio regulations.
“So with some creative thinking, a more welcoming regulatory environment and, most importantly, the determination of all levels of government to transform these beautiful old buildings into apartments and reinvigorate this part of the city then it will happen,” he says.
Amara and JLL economist Ronak Bhimjiani take me through the top levels of the Metropole, a sunny space just waiting for an architect to work their magic and transform it into something that would make a youngster have second thoughts about fleeing Perth for Melbourne.
“I would much rather be living here in a building with character and in a part of the city with life than in one of those soulless towers on Langley Park,” says Amara.
Read full article here WA Today.
PhotographerMark Naglazas
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