FREMANTLE could soon be home to 24-hour gourmet delicatessan, Fresh Provisions.
WA Business News understands that the Western Australian-based family-owned deli chain is considering taking out a tenancy in a new multi-million dollar redevelopment occurring in the Adelaide Street retail precinct in Fremantle.
Private investment group Silverleaf Investments is developing plans for a major retail hub in the area after it purchased the Chain Reaction building on Adelaide Street from the City of Fremantle for $2.6 million in December last year.
Silverleaf also owns the property adjacent to the Chain Reaction building and the nearby Target building, which it redeveloped 18 months ago.
Under the group’s development concept, the Chain Reaction building will be redeveloped into a three-level building and the adjoining property will be demolished to make way for a two-level building facing Cantonment Street.
Silverleaf Investments managing director Gerard O’Brien said the retail hub development would comprise a 24-hour gourmet deli outlet, a number of speciality shops, a discount department store and a medical centre.
Mr O’Brien would not say whether Fresh Provisions was considering the site.
He only said the ground floor of the development would house a 24-hour gourmet deli outlet.
Fresh Provisions director Basil Gotsis said the company was looking at a number of different sites for a third outlet, however, no concrete plans were in place to open another Fresh Provisions store.
Fresh Provisions has two 24-hour deli outlets in the Perth metropolitan area.
It first opened its Mt Lawley store in 1989 and established its Claremont store in the Bay View Shopping Centre in 1995.
Mr Gotsis said when Fresh Provisions first opened in Mt Lawley people thought it was madness, however, the 24-hour gourmet concept had worked well.
Fremantle Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Longley said the retail hub redevelopment would bring new vibrancy to the retail precinct along Adelaide Street.
He said the inclusion of a 24-hour gourmet deli would be beneficial to the residential community as well as the huge number of visitors Fremantle attracts.
According to Mr Longley, the harbour city is experiencing a development boom with development worth around half a billion dollars slated for the region, including the Leighton Beach redevelopment, the Commercial Precinct on the Fremantle harbour, and the proposed South Beach Village.
“Fremantle historically has developed in surges,” he said.
“ I believe we are now in the next wave.”
