Fremantle identity and Esplanade Hotel managing director Marilyn New is in mediation talks to secure planning approval to build 65 apartments within the existing Wool Stores building in Fremantle.
Ms New hopes to sell the proposed 200sq m apartments off the plan in September and, if approvals are granted, holds plans to develop a 100-room, 4.5 star hotel on the site, likely to be called the “Goldsborough Hotel”.
The original Elders Wool Stores is an imposing, four-storey brick warehouse bounded by Goldsborough Street, Elder Place, Parry and Cantonment Streets. The southern part, constructed in 1927, sits opposite the Wool Stores carpark and shopping centre and is currently derelict.
Camellia Holdings, Ms New’s company, purchased multiple lots of the Elders Wool Stores site in June 1998, selling a parcel to MMAGS Holdings that have since demolished the old building and developed the Victoria Quay residential apartments on the north end of the Wool Stores precinct.
“I think it’s a viable proposition and I expect the demand for the apartments will be strong considering the successful sale of all 32 of the Victoria Quay apartments,” Ms New said
Victoria Quay apartments agent Ray Fuller said one of the apartments on level five in stage one of the development purchased for $700,000 four years ago recently sold for $1.085 million.
“In the next five years, with the opening up of Phillimore Street due to ING’s Victoria Quay redevelopment, this precinct will be the place to be,” he said.
The Heritage Council of WA expects the original 1927 Goldsborough Wool Store to be retained and sympathetically adapted for compatible uses.
Fremantle has been struggling to get a new hotel for some time with mooted plans by developer Mirvac Fini for a five-star hotel on Marine Terrace recently put on hold.
Mirvac Fini have persisted with the hotel plan for many years but the planning commission’s marine division poured cold water on the idea, reporting that the development may hurt the commercial fishing industry in the area.
