The contract to design, build, finance and maintain the new Perth Stadium and Sports Precinct has reached another important milestone with the naming of WESTADIUM as the preferred respondent.

Premier Colin Barnett said each of the three shortlisted private sector consortia submitted world-class bids that addressed the technical, operational and commercial requirements of the State’s Request For Proposals.

“The State’s evaluation team spent the last four months rigorously evaluating each bid and ultimately determined that WESTADIUM represented the best overall value for money for the design and construction phase plus the contract’s 25 year maintenance period,” the Premier said.

“We expect the contract will be awarded mid-year - which is when we can reveal the successful design.”

Following approval of WESTADIUM as the preferred respondent by Cabinet yesterday, the State will now enter into exclusive negotiations, seeking to reach final agreement on all of the terms and conditions to design, build, finance and maintain the new Perth Stadium.

Cabinet also approved appointment of the Confidem consortium as the reserve respondent, in the event that the State cannot successfully conclude negotiations with WESTADIUM.

Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron thanked the three consortia for the significant investment and time that they had taken to develop their bids.
“The quality and breadth of the bid responses reflects the stature of this project and the appetite from the international stadia industry to be part of delivering a world-class venue," he said.

"The announcement today demonstrates how beneficial the past two years of planning have been, but there is still a long way to go to successfully deliver this project."

Fremantle CEO Steve Rosich said: “The Fremantle Dockers, in conjunction with other football industry stakeholders, have been involved with the development of the Request For Proposal documentation initially and have subsequently been involved in the evaluation of all three responses with respect to the design of the stadium.

“We have also provided feedback to the State Government, which has been included and considered as part of the evaluation process. Once the negotiation has been finalised we, along with other football stakeholders, will provide input into the final design of the stadium.”

Physical pre-construction site works were recently completed six weeks ahead of schedule.  The site is now being left to settle under 740,000 tonnes of sand surcharge to ensure it is fully prepared for construction to begin at the end of 2014. The new Perth Stadium is scheduled to open in time for the start of the 2018 AFL season.

The WESTADIUM consortium is led by Brookfield Financial and John Laing, with Brookfield Multiplex as builder and Brookfield Johnson Controls as facilities manager.