THE redevelopment of council’s Number 8 car park bounded by James, Lake and Roe Streets has finally begun.
THE redevelopment of council’s Number 8 car park bounded by James, Lake and Roe Streets has finally begun.
The car park closed on 18 July and is expected to partially reopen on 12 December. The total development is expected to be completed by June 2000.
Council has been trying to get the aging car park redeveloped for many years.
In 1995 it seemed it had found success when Project Tourism Australia proposed a three-star hotel with long-term public car parking included on the site.
That proposal finally fell over in 1997 due to a lack of funds.
In 1998, Multiplex proposed a 300 seat Imax theatre on the Lake Street frontage, a 475 bay car park and retail tenancies fronting James Street.
When completed, the car park will have about fifty more bays than the previous car park.
Multiplex has agreed to fund a free bus service on Friday and Saturday nights from 6:00pm until 2:00am around the heart of Northbridge to the nearby Citi-place, Cultural Centre and State Library car parks. The buses will run every fifteen minutes. Normal CATS bus services will be unaffected.
Multiplex will also reconfigure a site on Beaufort Street, near the corner of Roe Street, to provide additional parking.
As part of the deal, Multiplex will also find tenants for the James Street retail tenancies who will provide council with an income stream of $200,000 for five years.
If Multiplex cannot find tenants council deems suitable after the development is completed, it will fund the shortfall.
However, it will not meet any loss of income if council approved tenants leave before the end of the five years.
Councillor Bert Tudori said Multiplex had gone back on assurances it had previously given council.
“Multiplex promised us 300 parking bays would be kept and they would build around it. They also gave us an ‘irrevocable guarantee’ that we would get $200,000 over the five years,” Mr Tudori said.
Council’s director of business units Doug Forster said Multiplex had indicated it could have no influence on what would be a landlord-tenant relationship between council and James Street lessees.
The car park closed on 18 July and is expected to partially reopen on 12 December. The total development is expected to be completed by June 2000.
Council has been trying to get the aging car park redeveloped for many years.
In 1995 it seemed it had found success when Project Tourism Australia proposed a three-star hotel with long-term public car parking included on the site.
That proposal finally fell over in 1997 due to a lack of funds.
In 1998, Multiplex proposed a 300 seat Imax theatre on the Lake Street frontage, a 475 bay car park and retail tenancies fronting James Street.
When completed, the car park will have about fifty more bays than the previous car park.
Multiplex has agreed to fund a free bus service on Friday and Saturday nights from 6:00pm until 2:00am around the heart of Northbridge to the nearby Citi-place, Cultural Centre and State Library car parks. The buses will run every fifteen minutes. Normal CATS bus services will be unaffected.
Multiplex will also reconfigure a site on Beaufort Street, near the corner of Roe Street, to provide additional parking.
As part of the deal, Multiplex will also find tenants for the James Street retail tenancies who will provide council with an income stream of $200,000 for five years.
If Multiplex cannot find tenants council deems suitable after the development is completed, it will fund the shortfall.
However, it will not meet any loss of income if council approved tenants leave before the end of the five years.
Councillor Bert Tudori said Multiplex had gone back on assurances it had previously given council.
“Multiplex promised us 300 parking bays would be kept and they would build around it. They also gave us an ‘irrevocable guarantee’ that we would get $200,000 over the five years,” Mr Tudori said.
Council’s director of business units Doug Forster said Multiplex had indicated it could have no influence on what would be a landlord-tenant relationship between council and James Street lessees.