OLD FREO NEWS STILL GOOD NEWS

 

It must be slow news time or sheer desperation for a good news story that The City of Fremantle and Mayor Brad Pettitt are re-posting an article in Business News about Andrew-Twiggy-Forrest’s investments in Fremantle.

It is old news that Forrest’s companies have bought the Orient Hotel in High Street for $ 4.6 million and the Spicers carpark on the corner of William and Henderson streets from Sirona Capital for $ 7.6 million, as well as 45 Phillimore Street for $ 2.7 million.

So yes, shout it out loud that Andrew Forrest has invested $ 15 million in Freo over the last 15 months and that it is a sign of confidence in Fremantle’s economic rebirth.

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE HERITAGE CAR PARK

 

 

Fremantle has so many hidden treasures and I ‘discovered’ this car park of the former warehouse at Little High Street this morning.

The entrance is at Phillimore Street and the excellent adaptive re-use of the former warehouse into residential apartments was done by Freo architect Ralph Hoare.

The unit on the corner of High Street, opposite Chalkys cafe, is for sale for just over $ 2 million as I understand it.

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE DEVELOPMENT PIPE LINE OR PIPE DREAM?

 

 

 

Before

Today

 

Worrying signs in Fremantle for the Hilton Doubletree hotel and Ancora apartments development on the corner of Point and Adelaide Street.

The SKS Group who owns the site has been delaying the development for years and were supposed to commence this October, but all promotional signage has been removed from the sales office, and only one sign remains standing at the carpark.

On their website SKS states that a glut of hotel development might end up in many vacant rooms due to a decline in WA tourist numbers, but that is no longer the case with WA recording the highest increase in tourist numbers in Australia recently.

SKS received planning approval for a six-storey 150 rooms hotel and 98 residential apartments, but have been reluctant to start the development.

There are other residential developments in the pipeline for Fremantle, but will they become reality with the residential market being very slow? It’s a worry!

Roel Loopers

 

FREO GATEWAY DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

The opportunity for two large Fremantle gateway developments are on offer with the two Shacks Holden properties at Queen Victoria being put up for sale.

The two properties on either sides of James Street are more than 11,000sqm, with one of them next to the Heirloom warehouse apartments and opposite the LIV Defence Housing residential building.

One site is 3,464sqm and the other 6,725sqm and offer fantastic opportunities to make a stunning entry statement to Fremantle.

Roel Loopers

MORE YOLK DEVELOPMENT FOR FREMANTLE

 

 

Very good to see that the large block on the corner of Sussex Street and South Terrace, that has been vacant for far too many years, will soon be developed.

The Yolk Property Group has bough the site, so I think we can expect a residential development there and that would be very good.

Stay tuned for the development proposal.

Roel Loopers

 

LITTLE LANE BIG DEVELOPMENT FOR FREMANTLE

 

 

It looks like the Little Lane residential development by the Yolk Properties group on the former Spotlight site at Fremantle’s Adelaide Street will soon be getting under way.

Retail incubator Many 2.1 which occupies the building have just announced that their last day in that location will be Sunday March 10.

This will be the closest residential development to Kings Square, so it will be exciting to see it going up.

Meanwhile we are still waiting for the SKS Group to start on the Hilton Doubletree hotel down the road from Little Lane on the corner of Adelaide and Point streets, but I hear rumours that they might even start their Cockburn hotel before starting the very much delayed one in Fremantle and that would be unacceptable.

Roel Loopers

FREMANTLE OVAL THE NEXT BIG PROJECT

 

 

Subiaco Oval development plans

 

After the Kings Square Redevelopment Project the next big project in Fremantle will be the Fremantle Oval one, and if it is done right we’ll have an amazing new precinct in the inner city that will connect Wray Avenue with the Cappuccino Strip.

After all the planned and in progress commercial development the heart of the city will need more medium-density residential development and the Freo Oval project is perfect for that.

Height needs to be addressed though with utmost sensitivity because of the proximity to the World Heritage listed Fremantle Prison. We can’t just apply the rule that Fremantle Hospital is high, and also the residential building across it at Arundel Court, so we can go up all the way to the height of the hospital.

The Claremont Oval development should be a huge warning for Fremantle. It is awful!

I reserve my opinion about the planned development of Subiaco Oval, but check it out for yourself on the Landcorp website, see the artist’s impression above.

Roel Loopers

BETTER URBAN INFILL VERY IMPORTANT

 

WA Planning Minister Rita Saffioti has released stage one of DESIGN WA, the guidelines to improve the quality of urban infill.

One of the most heard complaints in Fremantle and all over the suburbs is the mediocre design of most of the new residential apartment and other buildings in our character cities, but planning rules and even design advisory panels have had little impact on improving the architecture and streetscapes, this will hopefully now improve, depending on how strict and strong the new policy can be enforced by local councils, JDAP, SAT and the WAPC.

Rita Saffioti’s statements says:

Design WA includes clearly defined objectives about what future developments should consider, and includes it in the revised Residential Design Codes. Objectives include:

• Appropriate scale to respect the local character and context;
• Minimum apartment sizes based on floor space and number of rooms;
• Safe, healthy environments with good natural light and ventilation;
• Development that creates walkable neighbourhoods with high amenity;
• Green space such as shady trees for outdoor spaces and mature tree retention; and
• Development that enhances local neighbourhoods. 

The policy will come into affect soon, on May 24, 2019, so that is a good thing.

One thing I have been wondering about is why urban infill and medium/high density buildings are demanded in older suburbs by the State Government but not in brand-new suburbs which are developed near public transport corridors. That makes no sense to me.

Roel Loopers

NEW BRUSH FACTORY, BUT IS IT BEAUTIFUL?

 

 

The fences finally came down along the Brush Factory development on the corner of Duke and George streets in East Fremantle, so I went to have another look at it this morning.

I know that beauty is difficult to quantify because it has different meanings for all of us, but I do find the modern top-level addition on the old building quite intriguing, while some other parts are just not my cup of tea.

I do not like the darkness the dark bricks create along Duke Street, where apartment buildings have been added, and I find that the northern side of development, which faces the old Royal George hotel, has very strange and awkward angles, almost as if much of it was an after-thought that was added to it.

But the epic development of the former Lauder&Howard antiques building has finally been completed and incorporates the Duke of George jazz and blues bar, so it is in part a good addition for the area.

In the meantime graffiti vandals have started to deface the Royal George again and it is still not known if Saracen Properties will go ahead with the development there after all, when they are only allowed to have a seven-storey building behind the former hotel.

Roel Loopers

BUILDING CRANE IN FREO’S HISTORIC WEST END

 

 

It is rather unusual to see a big building crane going up in Fremantle’s historic West End, but this one was put together all day in Henry Street for the construction of the four-storey residential building on the former Fremantle Workers Club site.

Roel Loopers