THE former Harvey Norman store site on Queen Street in Fremantle has secured budget fashion and footwear retailer, Best & Less, as a new tenant. The 1,160 square metre store will be the national chain’s 16th Best & Less outlet in Western Australia, and is due to open in October. Harvey Norman’s decision to close its Fremantle store about three months ago, along with fellow bulky goods retailer Retravision, has put the spotlight back on the area’s retail sector, which is believed to have experienced an 18 per cent decline in retail floor space during the past 10 years. Craft and homewares retailer Spotlight is also due to move, leaving Fremantle for a purpose-built store in Myaree. Best & Less landlord Sandro Monaco said while the new lease agreement was good news for Queen Street, Fremantle still had a lot of work to do to entice more shoppers into the port city, particularly with regard to high parking rates and anti-social behaviour. "Fremantle could be so much better. The city has got to be cleaned up. Subiaco works well by offering cheap parking areas, why can’t we?" he asked. The introduction of Friday night trading this week, in place of Thursday night trading, was a positive move by council that would help boost shopper numbers, Mr Monaco said. Fremantle has suffered from poor customer patronage and retailer participation on Thursday nights for some time, due to competition from regional shopping centres nearby. Other retail projects in the pipeline expected to give Fremantle’s retail sector a kick-start include the anticipated opening of a Woolworths supermarket and seven specialty stores on the former Ross’ Hardware site in Adelaide Street in December, and ING Real Estate’s proposed Victoria Quay redevelopment for 2010. This development includes about 12,000sq m of retail space. Meanwhile, Fremantle council is looking to develop a mixed-use residential, retail and office complex of up to five storeys on the Point Street car park and Port Cinema site. Jenelle Carter
