• Mayor Brad Pettitt last week said “presales have not been as quick as the developer would have liked so work has not yet been able to start” but CEO Graeme Mackenzie says this week the council is “happy with the way the Fort Knox development is progressing”. How can they both be right?
The city is investigating options for its own commercial benefit and its own strategic objectives—not for the benefit of the developer
FREMANTLE city council may buy an “undetermined number of dwellings” in the Fort Knox development.
The council is considering a rarely-used property deal known as a Put Option, which one industry insider branded a “bizarre” strategy.
CEO Graeme Mackenzie has confirmed “preliminary internal discussions” to investigate “what could be an attractive commercial opportunity to purchase affordable housing and help fast-track the City’s vision of more people living in the Fremantle city centre”.
The Queen Victoria Street warehouse is being transformed by Match into the “Heirloom” apartments, a linchpin project the council’s hoping will kickstart its vision of adding 4000 people to Fremantle’s inner-city population.
But last week mayor Brad Pettitt revealed to a local architect that, “presales have not been as quick as the developer would have liked so work has not yet been able to start”.
The insider, who requested anonymity, says under a Put Option the council would guarantee to purchase an agreed number of apartments after a certain date if the developer hadn’t already sold them to a higher bidder.
This could be used to offer financiers pre-sales peace of mind.
“I can’t understand why they wouldn’t just enter a standard offer and acceptance,” he said.
Mr Mackenzie denies the council is trying to help the project get over the line, saying it is “happy with the way the Fort Knox development is progressing”.
“The city is investigating options for its own commercial benefit and its own strategic objectives—not for the benefit of the developer.”
He says the public hasn’t been told of the deal because there’s “nothing to advise them of at this stage”.
But, while researching another story this week, the Herald stumbled across a note in the council’s list of creditors which showed they’d progressed to paying lawyers Jackson McDonald $400 to cast an eye over paperwork.
Mr Mackenzie says any deal will be made public before the council signs.
“Any formal agreement will require the production of a business case which will go to council and then be subject to a fully transparent community engagement process.”
by STEVE GRANT
For readers of the Herald – here is the response to this story by Fremantle Mayor, Brad Pettitt on his blog at cofremantle.wordpress.com
“Apologies to all of you who had to wake up to my ugly mug shot on the front page of your Herald. Enough to put you off your cornflakes. They must save up those particularly bad pictures for those special occasions.
This week I sent the following letter to the Editor which they chose not to print but instead cherry-pick parts from – which call me old-fashioned but seems a little unethical to me. I hope reading the letter shows I wasn’t letting fly at all just stating some facts to counter the Herald’s too often negative tone. But happy for you to be the judge:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Last week the Herald ran a potentially damaging front page headline and lead paragraph that not only wasn’t backed up with any evidence it wasn’t even backed up by the rest of the Herald’s own story
In Sales stall Freo vision the Herald claimed that “Fremantle council’s grand vision of revitalising the port city with 4000 new inner city residents has hit a snag”. This claim led the front page despite the Herald failing to get even one expert or developer to agree with their assertion.
A quick looks at the facts shows that instead of stalling we are seeing a phase a major redevelopment in Fremantle gather speed.
Match has already sold 70% of stage one of their Heirloom project. Across the road from Fort Knox over 40% of a new development of affordable studio units have been sold off the plan. Closer to the Freo centre, the King Square Project and Point Street redevelopment will all kick of later this year.
In other words despite the challenges of a post-GFC world we are seeing the start of major new developments to enable more people to live, work and recreate in Fremantle – just as the Council envisioned.
Fremantle is like the Queen Mary 2 – turning her around unfortunately takes longer than an impatient mayor like me would like. But with the major planning changes recently passed and the help of innovative developers like Match we are finally starting to see SS Freo sail in the right direction.
But when the Herald talks down Fremantle in a way that isn’t sustained by the facts – it is like an anchor dragging on the ocean floor, slowing the progress of turning SS Freo around and stirring up a lot of mud for no good reason.”
BRAD PETTITT, MAYOR
http://cofremantle.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/letting-flya-letter-to-the-editor
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