HUGE POTENTIAL FOR FREO’S INNER EAST

I am excited about the potential to make the inner East of Fremantle an outstanding new residential and commercial precinct. Plans for a large residential development on the Point Street carpark site have been lodged by Point Street Partners. The item is before Fremantle Council on Wednesday, but the decision-making authority is JDAP.

The site runs between Cantonment, Point and Adelaide streets and Princess May Park. The new buildings would be eight-storeys high and accommodate 215 apartments, which would make it the biggest residential development in the Fremantle CBD. Heirloom has 183 apartments, LIV has 166 units and Johnson Court 120.

I specifically like it that the building opens up with a courtyard to historic Princess May Park, and the vertical facade break-up of the building along Adelaide Street. I assume it will have the same architectural detail in Cantonment Street?

There is a big interest in developing the run-down inner East of our city, with Silverleaf Investments having already started on the development of the former Woolstores shopping centre. They are building a new Coles supermarket, office space and childcare facilities. Silverleaf has approved plans also for a hotel on the site, and there is a Stage III plan for the most eastern part, that fronts the debilitated Elders Woolstores.

Adrian Fini’s Hesperia bought the Elders building from Marilyn New, and Hesperia’s representative Sarah Booth has been actively reaching out to stakeholders and interested members of the Freo community, to hear our ideas on how the site could be developed. Hesperia genuinely want to create something special there.

City of Fremantle’s Strategic Planning Director Russell Kingdom told me last Friday, that the city is actively engaging with all three developers, to get a cohesive and collaborate approach to developing good public realm on and between the three major sites. I believe that is essential, and also the coordination of public art, as part of the percentage for the arts policy Fremantle Council has.

If they get it right it would be an enormous game changer for the inner East of Fremantle, so what should we be hoping for? It would make a significant difference to have many hundreds more people living in that part of the city. It would create a much safer environment day and night, with a lot of passive surveillance and eyes on the streets. It would become a hive of activity, that would hopefully encourage new retailers to open up in Fremantle. That is exactly what our gorgeous little city desperately needs and wants.

I have mostly received positive feedback about the development, so it is disappointing, but predictable, that the usual small group of anti development people do not like the plans, because the proposed development is much bigger than Johnson Court. The Point Street development is bigger, but it actually looks like three buildings around a courtyard, so very different from Johnson Court. The Point Street site is also one of thirteen CBD sites, specifically selected by Fremantle Council over a decade ago, for substantial infill, as part of Planning Scheme Amendment 49.

I would love to see more terraced townhouses in Fremantle though, not just the predictable apartment developments. I would also like to see co-living opportunities for students, where they have shared community spaces, kitchens and laundries. Larger apartments for families would also be desirable. We could definitely do with more public green spaces, but the City of Fremantle is not good at creating an ambience where people want to linger. Pioneer Park has been neglected, and only now Clancy’s has improved Princess May Park with a children’s nature playground.

Let’s hope that all the developers will commence construction soon. That also applies for the two approved hotels; one by Tattarang near the Fremantle Markets, and one by the Yolk Property Group, opposite the under construction new Police Complex. Silverleaf have already started on their tourist accommodation at the former Courthouse at Parry Street.

I am delighted to see development activity in Fremantle. It went into hibernation with the Covid pandemic and it is ever so slowly waking out of its slumber.

Roel Loopers

WHERE IS C.Y. WHEN FREO NEEDS HIM?

It is unfortunate that WA’s iconic legend C.Y O’Connor was not involved in the billion dollar Fremantle construction pipeline, because the pipeline has burst, or is blocked.

We have had announcements and planning approvals for so many major development projects, but most of them have stagnated, are on hold, paused, delayed, even scrapped, so where does that leave Fremantle Council’s aspirations for a vibrant and modern future?

The substantial Adina Hotel development on the former Woolstores site, by Silverleaf Investments, has been scaled down to a mere three-storey building, that looks like the old one, and will again become home to a Coles supermarket, plus a childcare centre and offices. The hotel is penciled in as stage 1B, but would have to be redesigned and re-approved, due to the significant change on the corner of Cantonment and Queen streets, when and if it happens.

The owners of the woolstores opposite Clancy’s have indicated they want to do a mixed development, but there is no timeline for that, and neither is there a construction start for the Point Street carpark site, owned by Sirona Urban, who want to build residential there, but have said they are waiting until the construction industry has normalised.

The seven-storey hotel development at South Terrace, by the Yolk Property Group, will be pushed back by 18 months, and the six-storey wood frame office building on the corner of High and Josephson streets does not look like starting any time soon either.

The six-storey boutique hotel by Twiggy Forrest’s Tattarang group, on the William Street carpark, won’t be commencing for at least two years, and nothing is happening at the Orient Hotel they own either.

The Prindiville Group has bought the former Technical College, opposite the Fremantle Markets, but there is also no time line yet for the development they have flagged in that location.

The massive Burt Street residential development by the State Government is very slow progress and does not include sufficient affordable and social housing, whilst there are not even architecture plans yet for the new Fremantle Police Complex, announced over two years ago. It does not look that will be happening in a hurry either. Public works take long, Premier Mark McGowan said at Fremantle Oval last Sunday

The election promise of a new theatre for Spare Parts Puppet Theatre at Pioneer Park has not been forthcoming, with Arts Minister David Templeman stating the plans were only aspirational. Yep, sure. Why then publish the artist’s renders by Kerry Hill architects before the election? SPPT is now closed.

There are even rumours the State Government is “pausing” the new Fremantle traffic bridge-Swan River Crossings-development. If true, that would make a mockery of Mainroads’ claims that the old wooden traffic bridge is not safe and can’t be retained.

The development of Fremantle Oval is still a very long way away, and so is the Heart of Beaconsfield’s massive development around the former TAFE site. The planned development for the Fishing Boat Harbour has gone very quiet, so don’t expect any development there either in the near future.

So will there be any major construction in Fremantle any time soon? We have been told that the Covid pandemic slowed everything down, and that is a fair point, but now there is a construction industry crisis, supply chain issues, and labour shortage, so how and when will that change and improve?

Fremantle has waited for a very long time for a rebirth and the re-activation of the inner city.

It started well with the Kings Square Redevelopment Project and the new FOMO buildings, the Walyalup Civic Centre, the Heirloom and Liv residential developments at Queen Victoria Street, the Energy Museum appartments and the eight-storey Little Lane building next to Target, but things have come to a crushing halt.

The pipeline is blocked, so who will unblock it and when? Where is CY when we need him!

Roel Loopers