Schindler Lifts feature at Century City, Perth CBD

Lead by the mining boom, Western Australia's economy is flourishing and office space in Perth's CBD has never been in such high demand.

Construction of new office towers has not kept pace with the boom and CBD vacancy rates have dropped from fourteen to two percent in the past two years. At the same time, demand for residential space has also increased with Perth recording the highest rate of population growth of any Australian capital city. This has reflected an upward trend for facilities and development to cater to Perth's needs.

Century City is Perth's first major CBD building in four years and is a mixed retail and commercial property currently under construction by Multiplex at 100 St Georges Terrace, Perth's main street.

A joint development by Industry Superannuation Property Trust and the Pivot Group, Century City will have an Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) program of four and a half stars. The ABGR program is a world-first initiative for rating the greenhouse and energy performance of office buildings.

Schindler is providing a combination of 25 lifts and escalators all using standardised products that meet the exact dimensions of the building with a major focus on energy efficiency.

The Australian Building Greenhouse Rating program, administered in Western Australia by the State Government's Sustainable Energy Development Office, encourages building owners to reduce energy use and costs and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Due for completion in 2009, this 23 floor high-rise, will have a Property Council of Australia 'Premium' Grade rating and is set to become one of Perth's premier addresses.

There will be two levels of car park and four floors of retail space in Century City with an office tower above. Schindler won the tender to supply four escalators, five freight lifts, four low-rise gearless and four high-rise gearless 7000s, one goods lift 7000 and three small passenger machine room-less car park lifts.

Recently Multiplex reassessed the tenants' requirements, an additional lift was ordered and the high-rise gearless lifts were upgraded to Schindler's state-of-the-art Miconic 10 range.

Miconic 10 is a revolutionary destination control system that groups passengers according to their required destination. Rather than having pushbuttons inside the lift car itself, the Miconic 10 allows the user to enter their destination on a keypad before entering the lift. This eliminates rushing to secure the first available lift and speeds passenger destination time by an average of 30%.

There are exciting times ahead for Perth with developments such as the Perth arena sporting complex, a new performing arts facility and the underground railway all adding vibrancy to this thriving city.