MEDIA 28.04.25: Incentives flagged to revitalise CBD

Thank you to Claire Tyrrell for highlighting the conversation at our Closing Night event 'Adapt or Die' about the potential of adaptive reuse projects.

Randal Humich said activating upper floors meant sacrificing retail space on the ground floor, which was more valuable to developers.

“[It’s a] financial calculation, but at the end of the day the decision is based more on what I think is going to work best in the long run, rather than the financial decision,” Mr Humich said.

A move to bring creative organisation Artrage into one of his Barrack Street properties had contributed to the atmosphere of the street, which Mr Humich said was a focus.

“That’s what I’m trying to do in this precinct ... to get more arts organisations involved,” he said.

Maverix Property Group founder Jemma Hutchinson, who has worked with Mr Litis on activating Perth’s west end, said ensuring landlords invested in the long-term future of an asset was key.

“We need to have passionate landlords in the CBD,” she said.

“It’s a long-term game. It’s not going to produce what you want up front, and you’ve got to have that visual that it’s going to take a while on some of these projects before we hit a return.”

JLL managing director Angelo Amara, who also sits on the board of Activate Perth, agreed there should be more incentives to repurpose existing buildings.

“Any way you can reduce barriers to entry or increase return on investment [would be welcome],” Mr Amara said.

“We’ve got a lot of landlords that are passionate and are there to get stuff done.

“There’s got to be a better way of looking at things like aggressive [urban] sprawl by reallocating some of these funds … to heritage restoration grants.

“It’s actually a disgrace … that the very little modern culture we’ve got in Perth that’s left, because we knocked down most of it, is sitting there vacant and unused above ground plane level.”

MJA Studio co-founder Jimmy Thompson, who has designed several adaptive reuse projects around Perth, spoke about the social impact of demolishing buildings.

“Perth has just demolished way too many buildings,” Mr Thompson said.

“Every time you demolish a building, you also demolish part of memory, and there’s a romance to existing buildings … I think is really important to retain.”