Fini builds on family foundations

AS the finishing touches are put to Perth’s newest members’ club, Lawson Flats, Fini Group creative director Alessio Fini hopes the development will provide the city with another compelling point of difference.

For Alessio, the son of property developer Adrian Fini, the building, across from the burgeoning Elizabeth Quay, represents a continuation of the family’s approach to development.

Alessio Fini explained that his grandfather, Tony Fini, who founded Fini Group in 1956, focused on the social element of projects.

“Tony was always a bit of a pillar of his community and made space for his people, whether it be in social clubs he was part of, or chambers of commerce,” he said.

“Even in the early days … he was building spaces that were the paradigm of building inner-city social spaces, and I think we’re just really carrying that on.”

Alessio Fini added that Lawson Flats, on which Fini Group is spending $7.5 million, was positioned as a place for people of varying demographics to congregate.

“I think we’re building places people want to be in, that bring people together, and to be honest they are in antagonism to the suburban condition,” he said.

“We are trying to make things a bit more civic, where people can come together in a quite centred and dignified way.

“I don’t mean that in a luxury way, I mean coming together in the city outside of the context of the pub or sport; how else do people come together?”

Lawson Flats is expected to open at the end of this month. 

Lawson Flats will occupy the first three floors of the Sherwood Court building, which Fini Group principal Adrian Fini purchased in late 2019 for $3.47 million from the Karrakatta Club.

The venue sits at the former home of the women’s only Karrakatta Club and, before that, private men’s club the Perth Club.

Unlike those venues, however, Lawson Flats is being positioned to attract a diverse membership base.

“We’re not trying to be exclusive, we’re not trying to play that game,” Adrian Fini told Business News.

Describing Lawson Flats as the “naughty cousin” of the existing Mello House members’ club he launched in the State Buildings in 2017, Adrian Fini said Lawson Flats would embody a more youthful spirit.

“From day one, we’ve said Lawson is a cousin of Mello; they’re different [but] there’s a little bit of DNA that’s attached there,” Adrian said.

“They’ve grown up in different environments … through different generations’ eyes.”

Alessio Fini described the prospective membership base as wide-ranging.

“We’ve said this about Lawson a lot of times, it is not just about one thing, it is about 20, 30 or 40 things and there’s not one type of member; it’s a broad church,” he said.

“We’re trying to build something that’s really youthful, inspiring and creative, and to bring people who have those values.

“When we say youthful we don’t mean young, we mean youthful in spirit.”

Fini Group is transforming the Sherwood Court building into a new members club. Photo: David Henry

Despite reports to the contrary, Adrian said he was yet to decide whether to apply the same rule as in Mello House to exclude politicians.

“I’m still not 100 per cent certain on that [but at] Mello that’s how it’s been since day one,” he said.

He said at Mello House, the exclusion applied to make sure there were no restrictions on the conversations people could engage in.

“If I allowed politicians, that actually limits people,” Adrian said.

Lawson Flats is set to include co-working spaces, a gym, a library, karaoke room, public art gallery, restaurant, pool room, music room and a basement sauna, with a $1,000 sign-up fee and subscription fee of up to $56 a week.

Adrian explained that the club hinged on the idea of creative capital, or the value generated from people getting together and expressing ideas.

“Creative industries can change cities, be it east London or Copenhagen, or the Miami arts district,” he said.

Adrian added that Lawson Flats reflected the shifting emphasis in the development sphere, from urbanism or town planning to looking at ways creativity can transform places.

“Originally when people were trying to make interesting urban spaces there was an emphasis on the streetscapes, but I think now we have to add the other social and cultural ingredients as part of that city planning to ensure we create cultural spaces also,” Adrian told Business News.

“Social and cultural spaces are part of the equation of making great cities.” He said the state buildings formed a big part of that mindset shift, but Lawson Flats was about the future.

“To move forward, you need youth to look forward for you,” Adrian said.

“I’m heading towards retirement … so I look at it differently.”

Hesperia is set to overhaul Fremantle's Elders Wool Stores. Photo: David Henry 

Call for change

Adrian Fini, who was named West Australian of the Year in 2016 in part for his restoration of the historic State Buildings, said Perth had a lot of room for improvement.

The Finis also voiced their support of daylight saving in Perth, which they say would boost the city’s economy. Alessio referenced Brisbane City Council’s recent push to implement daylight saving in Queensland, saying WA should follow.

“I don’t think we have really understood the implications of daylight saving in WA,” Alessio said.

“We’re already in a city that wakes up early … the stock market opens early, we’ve got a big working class population on the mines and in construction and on major projects.

“We trade early work and make time at the beach in the morning, and we forego art gallery openings [and] people getting together in the city.

“It drains tonnes of money out of the city … before work, you spend $20 [but] afterwards, we might spend $150, so we’re draining that money out of all these businesses by not doing daylight saving.”

A plan to revive Gloucester Park in East Perth is in the pipeline. 

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner recently argued that the city stood to lose $4 billion annually by not having daylight saving, based on a 2013 survey of businesses.

City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said daylight saving was a state matter, and Premier Mark McGowan has ruled out revisiting the issue given the four referendums returning ‘no’ votes in the past.

Adrian Fini reiterated his calls for Perth to have a greater residential population and for the proliferation of green spaces in the city.

“[There are] important things we’ve got to do urgently, we’ve got to build on what we started, a lot of that inner-city development in the 1980s [and] increasing densification,” he said.

“We’ve got a large job to do there still as a state to make sure we can increase the residents within the city to give it vitality and housing choice, which then creates diversity and all those other benefits.”

Adrian Fini pointed to stark contrasts in tree canopy between new suburbs and more established suburbs around Perth, adding that the city needed to lead the charge for restoring green space.

“Newer suburbia has lost a lot of tree canopy compared to older suburbia, and the city has to become a green space, because the city is what shows the change for sustainability arguments,” he said.

“The signal of change is the city; if you don’t see the city change there’s a lot of lost hope.”

The Finis pointed to Melbourne and Los Angeles, which have policies to improve tree canopy to mitigate climate risks and improve liveability.

Mr Zempilas said the city recognised the importance of improving green spaces “not only to cool our streets, but to improve environmental, social and economic outcomes”.

He said under the council’s Urban Forest Plan, 800 new street and parkland trees had been planted in the city in the past two years, with plans to plant a further 81 trees this year.

As Hesperia director, Adrian Fini said the property development company’s plan to transform East Perth’s Gloucester Park into an apartment and entertainment precinct would go some way to adding vibrancy to Perth.

“It’s a major game changer to unlock that part of the city,” he said.

Adrian Fini said he saw Fremantle as an important creative hub, where Hesperia’s plan to transform the Elders Wool Stores into apartments is the latest in a line of developments he has pursued in the port town.

Adrian Fini is helping develop a $100 million film studio in Malaga.

Market-led proposals

Meanwhile, the Adrian Fini-backed Home Fire Creative Industries is developing a $100 million film studio, which has progressed through the state’s market-led proposal (MLP) process.

The studio will be built in Malaga, after the government reneged on a plan for it to be in Fremantle.

The MLP process, which allows developers to devise their own bids to pitch to the government, has attracted criticism in the past for being too opaque and drawn out.

But the state government’s recent changes to MLPs promise to shorten the process and improve its transparency, which Adrian Fini welcomed.

“We’re a big supporter of it … I think that the more timeliness, probity and transparency, the better,” he said.

“We feel uncomfortable as a developer proposing MLPs … it’s a very strict process already, but it’s a strict, slow process, and it should be a strict, transparent, fast process, to bring great ideas to amazing outcomes.

“That’s the whole idea of it and hopefully the changes drive it towards that.”