Creating Hard-Working Assets Begins Before Construction, Sector Told

StoreLocal is building a 564-unit self-storage facility across seven levels on Perth’s CBD fringe—with no permanent staff onsite. Flexible-workspace operator Hub Australia is finding new revenue in underused offices. Childcare developer Jeckra, meanwhile, spends longer on design before lodgement to stop operational flaws becoming expensive property problems. Their buildings share little but their commercial logic is the same—make space more useful, remove avoidable costs and solve problems earlier. ▲ The Urban Developer’s Adam Di Marco, Hub Australia’s Rebekah Murphy, StoreLocal’s Hans Pearson and Jeckra’s Daniel West at Urbanity-26. Speaking at The Urban Developer’s flagship conference on the Gold Coast, Urbanity-26, Hub Australia co-chief executive Rebekah Murphy, StoreLocal chief executive Hans Pearson and Jeckra director of development and investment Daniel West explained how operations were shaping their property decisions. Storage without staff At 20 Sutherland Street, West Perth, StoreLocal is applying its remote operating model to a large inner-city building. Its national expansion has heavyweight capital behind it—funds managed by BlackRock Real Estate acquired a majority interest in the business in May 2025. Transaction adviser Hall &amp; Wilcox put the self-storage enterprise at $440 million and said it had secured more than $1 billion for expansion. Media in 2025 reported that the capital would support StoreLocal’s ambition for a $2-billion Australian platform. ▲ StoreLocal’s seven-level West Perth facility is designed to operate without permanent staff onsite. StoreLocal followed with a five-facility Perth acquisition for more than $150 million in January, 2026, taking its owned and managed portfolio beyond 45 assets, according to a company release. Pearson expected the business to double again within two or three years. StoreLocal-owned facilities operated without employees onsite, he said, supported by a customer experience centre in the Philippines, remote camera monitoring and phone-based access. “Today we would have 50 to 60 staff. We don’t have any staff in our stores, which is clearly a very material cost saver in the Australian market. It’s our largest cost input,” Pearson said. He linked demand to population growth, denser living, interstate migration, household formation and increasing numbers of small businesses. ▲ StoreLocal chief executive Hans Pearson said automation was helping the operator remove onsite staffing costs. Those businesses were also using storage in what Pearson described as last-quarter-mile logistics networks, extending the sector’s reach beyond household customers. “We’re very much a retail operating management platform, which is supported by property,” Pearson said. Spare offices find another job Hub is making offices earn in more ways as hybrid work reshapes demand. Murphy said the 15-year-old business had evolved from traditional coworking towards a professional flexible-workspace model serving scaling companies and enterprise clients. Members were coming into its offices for individual focus as often as collaboration. Most floor space remained private offices. ▲ Hub Australia co-chief executive Rebekah Murphy said members sought offices for individual focus as often as collaboration. Difficult conditions in Melbourne had, however, pushed Hub to repurpose spare areas for events, collaboration and remote teams. “We know that remote teams were wanting to come into the business more and collaborate, so we just found different ways to use the assets that we had to generate revenue off the back of them,” Murphy said. Experimentation has also moved beyond reconfigured rooms. Hub said it installed a full cabin from off-grid accommodation operator Unyoked inside its Elizabeth Quay clubhouse as a space for stillness, reset and focused work. Healthtech company Montu shows how the model works for a large, nationally distributed workforce. Hub said a single membership gave Montu’s 700 nationally distributed employees access to workplaces for training, workshops, offsites and events without maintaining a permanent office. “The office is going to become more important, not less,” Murphy said. Childcare before construction Jeckra pushes operational input to the front of the childcare development process. ▲ Jeckra’s Daniel West said early collaboration helped prevent operational problems reaching construction. Its vertically integrated model aligns capital, acquisition and approvals through Jeckra with construction partner Belmadar and operator Futuro Early Learning. Jeckra lists a $140-million development pipeline, occupancy above 95 per cent across operating Futuro centres, about 800 waitlisted families and a 30-year operator weighted average lease expiry for Futuro. West said Jeckra focused on New South Wales growth corridors and preferred centres with between 100 and 130 places. Operator, architect, builder and funding partner were brought together early. Lessons from each opening informed later finishes, room configurations and safety decisions. “We probably spent way too much time thinking about all this stuff before we even put in DAs and do things like that. We want to make sure that everyone’s happy just to avoid any pain down the track,” West said. None of the operators is betting on property alone. Their advantage lies in the systems wrapped around it—turning spare rooms into products, moving labour offsite and eliminating design faults before construction. The asset provides the space. The operating platform decides how hard it works.

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Wed 29 Jul 26

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CommercialVanessa CrollWed 29 Jul 26

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