Development – Is Perth Doing It Right?

The evening commenced with an introduction to the Property Council’s new Commercial Director Ling Geh who kindly reminded us all of the need to nominate for the Young Achievers Awards! Don’t forget, it’s not about what level you are at but instead it is more about the achievements.

On to the introduction to the panel of leaders – I do believe we can all agree that thanks to our moderator, Darren Cooper from Blackburne Property Group, we are well informed of their extensive backgrounds, star signs and favourite colours! Our panel for the evening consisted of four fantastic leaders:

• Kieran Kinsella – CEO, MRA
  Kieran has a central role in new development in the city and is an integral part in the continued re development process. Kieran’s star sign is Aries and his favourite colour is blue.
• Dominic Snellgrove – Managing Director, CCM
  With over 25 yrs. experience Dominic is a well know architect and project director whom was involved in the amazing Perth Arena. Dominic’s star sign is Cancer and his favourite colour is also blue.
• David Caddy – Executive Chairman, TPG Town Planning, Urban Design and Heritage
  David has over 35 years experience in the industry and since 2010 has been a Professor, Urban & Regional Planning, School of Earth and Environment, University of Western Australia. David’s star sign is a Leo and to be different his favourite colour is red!
• Dean Munford – Development Director at Mirvac
  Having been with Mirvac since 2004 and with a further background of roughly 25 years added to the fact that Dean is well known. Dean’s star sign is Cancer and his favourite colour is blue.
• Moderator Darren Cooper – where do we begin?
  He is a Libra and loves the colour purple; I think that is enough.

Question time commenced with the panel being thrown a curve ball question that they weren’t aware of! They recovered well and it was clear what their thoughts where on whether Perth is doing it right:

• Dominic thought that Perth managed change well, but we can definitely do better;
• David thought public spending was good, but needs improvement in transport;
• Dean thought that the promotion of Perth as an investment destination was great; and
• Kieran saw that the social fabric of the city was doing well and that the social vibrancy was improving due to the constant redevelopment and we are doing a good job on infrastructure.

With further questions entered into and great elaborations by our panel leaders it was evident that Perth is being seen more as a new energized city compared to what once was “Dullsville”.

Prior to the dehydration of the group and the walk down to the lovely Lalla Rookh Bar the evening capped off with a clear summary of is Perth doing it right?

• Dominic believes we most definitely are as all you have to do is look at Elizabeth Keys and the City link as examples and that as a whole it is probably not as appreciated as it should be to the extent Perth is actually doing to improve, but we can always do better!
• David reiterated the perception that Perth once was considered “Dullsville” but we are now doing it right.
• Dean simply put it as a “Yes”, and went onto say that we are still a small city and when you look outside our patch and hopefully continue to draw inspiration and act on it we can only improve further.
• Kieran was to the point and said we are learning as we go.

In summary it was a fantastic evening which carried on into the night at the gorgeous Lalla Rookh Bar.

Thank you to all whom attended and we look forward to seeing you at the next event!

Emma Hofsink
Blackburne

If you would like to nominate for the Young Achiever Awards, click here to download the form.

For more information, email Anna Muller at [email protected]