Perth’s home-grown Flexible Workspace Operator is heading East.

Liberty Flexible Workspaces to more than double in size with East Coast expansion.

2024 is set to be a landmark year for Perth-based Liberty Flexible Workspaces, with four new buildings set to open, including three ground-breaking expansions beyond Western Australia.

Liberty announced today that it is adding almost 7000sqm to its portfolio by November 2024 with new locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

The group will open a 6-floor, 2000sqm North Sydney location in Dexus ’s 56 Berry Street in August, a 2-floor 1500sqm location in Brisbane CBD at Firmus Capital Pte Ltd ’s 127 Creek Street in October and finally a 1300sqm facility at JQZ ’s $1.6bn precinct at 558 Pacific Highway in St Leonards in November. This is in addition to their previously announced expansion at GDI Property Group ’s Westralia Square 2, Perth’s first high rise timber office building, where Liberty will operate a 1700sqm facility across levels 5 & 6 from August.

“With Sydney CBD office rents now in excess of $1000 per sqm, our market entry strategy has been to select well located buildings, within commercial hubs, where the CBD is accessible in 5-10 minutes and we can provide a quality product at a fraction of the cost” said Jamie Vine , Liberty’s Founder “the launch of the new Sydney Metro lines have played a big part in our decision making”

With the new Metro about to open, North Sydney’s Victoria Cross station will provide Liberty’s Berry Street customers easy access to Barangaroo in just 3 minutes and Martin Place in 5 minutes. Their St Leonards location is only 400 metres from the new Crow’s Nest Metro Station which opens this year, providing access to Barangaroo in 5 minutes and Martin Place in Sydney CBD in 7 minutes.

For their new offerings in Brisbane and Perth they have followed a tried and tested formula, with both centres located in the more traditional central CBD locations.

Celebrating its 13th anniversary, Liberty has been pursuing a national expansion since first unveiling its ambitious growth strategy in 2012.

When the business launched in 2011 it took the Perth market by storm and challenged the then duopoly of Regus and Servcorp. Liberty’s first location reached capacity in a few short months before they acquired a second Perth location early in 2012. It was at this point the business set its sights on the East Coast of Australia.

But before they could realise their ambitions the market in Perth nose-dived in 2013 in what Mr Vine described as the perfect storm.

“The resources construction boom came to an end which halved demand and significantly impacted pricing and we had new market entrants and competitors expanding who had clearly not read the market” said Vine “at the same time BHP vacated several buildings on St Georges Terrace to move into their new headquarters at Brookfield Place leaving huge vacancies and many occupiers linked to the resources sector began marketing excess floor-space for sublet”

As a result, office vacancy rates in Perth increased rapidly from just 3.3% in 2012 to 6.9% in 2013, 11.8% in 2014 and 18.5% in 2015 before reaching its peak, and a 20 year high, of 21.8% in 2016.

During this volatile period the business maintained its client centric focus and claims it was the loyalty of its clients, many of whom have now been Liberty customers for over a decade, that helped the business through these tough times.

Throughout the downturn Mr Vine continued his drive for growth through promoting the innovative Joint Venture and Management Agreement structures he had previously applied to the UK market where he was Development Director for the country’s second largest operator, MWB Business Exchange, between 1999 and 2010.

The drive eventually paid off in 2018 with the business opening new locations in West Perth, Burswood and at Citibank House in Perth CBD, along with taking on the management of a Training and Conference Centre for GDI Property Group at 197 St Georges Terrace.

In 2021, adapting to changing work habits brought on by the pandemic, Liberty partnered with Lendlease to launch their first location outside Perth's traditional metro area, offering a 'work near home' solution for residents in the northern city of Joondalup.

In December 2022 Liberty worked with Primewest - now Centuria to provide certainty to tenants affected by the collapse of Victory Offices within its Exchange Tower building in Perth and, after a period of consolidation, recently refurbished and reconfigured the floor and signing a new long-term lease to continue operations well into the next decade.

The group restructured in 2023, launching a complementary real estate business, Felix Real Estate .

Felix is the brainchild of Liberty’s founder Jamie Vine, Liberty’s CEO, Paul Miller and Dan Clarke who joined the business as Liberty’s Head of Commercial in January 2022. The trio recognised that there is often a natural transition for many scaling businesses that outgrow a flexible workspace environment and want to establish their own office under a more conventional lease, but there was no one to advise companies through the process.

“Every time I explain to anyone working in commercial real estate how we are connecting the dots between flexible workspaces and office leases, they always say the same thing; How has nobody done this before, it’s a no-brainer!” said Dan Clarke, Felix’s Licensee & Managing Partner.

Originally envisaged to be entirely focused on helping Liberty’s clients take the next step, Felix has quickly evolved into a sector-wide advisory service, helping clients identify the most appropriate office solution for them regardless of what stage they are at.

“Because Felix can help businesses understand all of the options available to them, including advising them on flexible workspace solutions and traditional environments, there should never be a time where we can’t help,” said Clarke, “and we do not have a bias either way”.

Having such a wide appeal has meant Felix is not just helping businesses transition from Liberty into leases, they are also instrumental in securing tenants for Liberty’s flexible workspaces, with many organisations shifting from standalone leases into fully managed space as a result of changing work practices, including the rise of hybrid working.

“The popularity of this market-wide approach meant we needed to invest in growing the team, but as the name suggests, our culture is what drives our business and identifying the right fit was not easy” said Jamie Vine, CEO of parent company, The Happy Workplace Group, “We finally found the perfect addition to our leadership team, and we were delighted to welcome Natalie Davies MRICS in January of this year as Joint-Managing Partner of Felix.”

Davies, a Chartered Surveyor, joined the group with several years of commercial property experience. Her knowledge of the industry is supported by past roles as Senior Property Manager for both Perth Airport and Savills, and more recently, over the last 4 years, as an Associate Director of Savills office leasing.

“The ambition and vision of the team has been paramount to its success, and I am thrilled and honoured to join the leadership team as we continue to establish and strengthen Felix RE across Australia, “said Natalie, “We have tremendous opportunity for growth, having already identified our niche in the market, and I am excited to continue the development”

Over the past 12-months, the business has also recruited Kiara Rotaru as Marketing Executive and promoted Jayde Towers to Client Experience Director. Kiara brings a wealth of marketing and communications experience to the team, highlighted with 7 years at Mercedes-Benz. Meanwhile Jayde has climbed the ranks and brings a wealth of experience to her current position having been with the business for over 5 years.

“Collectively our leadership team has over 100 years of experience in flexible workspace, commercial real estate and service delivery, which gives the organisations we work with a great deal of confidence and comfort” commented Mr Vine.