A Perth heritage building is in line for a new lease on life after the WA Government said it would spend $15 million to transform it into an “innovation hub”.
The building at 128-132 Murray Street in the WA capital’s CBD is home to a heritage-listed utilities building that will be adaptively reused for the life sciences project.
The Murray Street hub will be “a central city space for collaboration, research and development” in the medical space, according to the state.
It will link to such facilities as the East Metropolitan Health Service Innovation Hub, QEII medical research precinct and the biomedical industry precinct at Floreat.
Tenders have been called for a builder to redevelop the site, which has a long and varied history.
According to the State Heritage Office, a three-storey building was built on the site for Robertson and Moffatt, a house furniture warehouse, in 1895, which was replaced by the offices of the City of Perth Electrical and Gas Department in 1927.
It received a facade revamp in 2017, but has been underutilised since.
The WA Government is funding the project via its Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund, established in 2020 and which has sinced awarded $185 million in grants to 627 recipients to support health and medical research and innovation.
The state has supported several innovation hubs that offer collaborative facilities, including a data science, life sciences and greentech hubs.
Meanwhile, the WA Government has also released 11 industrial lots as part of its efforts to create new employment opportunities in Perth’s north-west corridor.
DevelopmentWA wass releasing parcels of land ranging from 2817sq m to 7233sq m for industries including warehousing and logistics, construction, mining and engineering, it said. A further seven lots would be released, subject to demand.
“This release at Meridian Park represents an important opportunity to attract new businesses, diversify the WA economy and support local enterprises in Perth’s northern suburbs,” WA Lands Minister John Carey said.
Life sciences has been tipped as a major growth area across the country—Kurraba Group’s proposal for a $490-million precinct in Sydney is a sign of things to come as governments and investors throw their weight behind the sector.
