The retail component, named enex perth (formerly enex100), is made up of three floors of shops and food outlets between St Georges Terrace and the Hay Street Mall.

[2] The seven-storey New Zealand Insurance Company building was constructed at 100 St Georges Terrace in 1927,[2] followed by the neighbouring six-storey Airways House in 1933.

This was to make way for a A$100 million development retail arcade and 39-storey office tower, however due to a market downturn the plans never eventuated.

[4] In 2001, Futuris Corporation subsidiary Caversham Properties obtained a $30 million option over the site to develop an office tower.

[9] The development was undertaken as a joint venture between Incitec and the Industry Superannuation Property Trust (ISPT),[9] the latter of which also owned the nearby Forrest Chase shopping centre.

[9] The plans included underground car park[3] as well as a 22-bay loading dock, which was to be used by tenants of the shopping centre as well as other retailers on the Hay Street Mall.

[10] Due to an economic boom in Western Australia, during planning and construction the retail and office rental markets in the Perth CBD dried up, with vacancy rates falling to record lows.

[13] Existing leases over the remaining buildings fronting the Hay Street Mall expired at the end of January 2006,[12] and demolition started in February 2006.

[18] The first major office tenancy was achieved in March 2007 when Inpex signed a 10-year lease of 7,000 square metres (75,000 sq ft) of space across the building's top four floors.

[19] This was followed by the National Australia Bank which took 8,900 square metres (96,000 sq ft) of space in the tower and became its anchor tenant, to enable it to shift from its current location in St Martins Centre.

During construction, ISPT acquired Axiom Properties' share of the project and renamed it from "Century City" to "100 St Georges Terrace", with the retail component called "enex100".

The initial stage of the retail project, made up of shops fronting the Hay Street Mall, opened in mid-December 2008.

[23] The second stage of the retail centre was made up of the Woolworths supermarket, JB Hi-Fi and an upmarket food court on the podium level.

Under the proposal, the ground floor (Hay Street) level would be converted into a 130-seat communal lounge room, and a 260-seat canteen with several eateries.

[33] Floor plates in the office building are 1,765 square metres (19,000 sq ft) in area,[16] and are described by the management as virtually "column-free" and with "high windows".