11th November, 2020

A new home for Bruce

When our lease expired last year it was a great opportunity to look at other options to home us. The office rental market was flooded with opportunities providing us with a chance to save some money and more importantly find a better home for the Bruce team which has grown to almost 20 in number. Arranging another lease on better terms was the early front runner, there were plenty of options and buying an office in the same area seemed unaffordable.

With our lease expiry approaching rapidly a late night browse on realestate.com.au revealed an office space for sale at the other end of the same street where we had been located for the previous ten years. The price looked oddly affordable for Subiaco, however on first inspection it was very dated, had poor lighting and with just one female toilet for an office of 18 ladies there were some substantial issues to overcome. We needed some real vision to turn this in the modern home for our business, but would the amount of money required to do this put it back in the unaffordable basket?

Time to call Kathy & Melanie at MKDC, one of Perth’s top interior designers for office spaces. As a long-time client I knew that their work was exceptional. Our brief – turn this tired, problematic space into a modern professional home for our team of 20 with potential to grow to 30. We wanted a quality fit-out so that in 10-15 years it didn’t look rundown like had happened to the fit out that was in the building at the time. Oh and also our budget was tight and timing… well our lease was about to expire and it was just a few weeks before Christmas when the whole building industry generally shuts down!

Yes we were asking for a lot, but Mel at MKDC hardly flinched as I delivered our brief and she managed to convince us that all this could be achieved with a stunning 3D visual of how the space could look.

Step two was to find a builder who were able to do the work, at a reasonable price, starting almost immediately and finishing on time. Up to the plate stepped another long term client, Ballpoint Construction. We all know that building experiences can be difficult with many surprises along the way, however I am still amazed at the level of professionalism displayed by the team at Ballpoint. Ballpoint had promised from the start that they would finish early which was very reassuring, but obviously the quality of the finished result was vital. It was a huge relief to find that Ballpoint were almost more passionate than we were about achieving a great result. The way their team worked together and communicated regularly with all parties was a breath of fresh air.

The end result, delivered ahead of time, under budget and beyond our expectations, I think you will agree, is simply stunning and we look forward to welcoming clients and suppliers to join us for a coffee in our café, a game of table tennis or a glass of wine on a Friday afternoon…or perhaps even an insurance review in one of our beautiful meeting rooms.

Author: Murray Bruce