• The workers club facade will stay, but the developer wants five storeys behind.

A DEVELOPER has lodged an application to build a five-storey office and apartment complex in Fremantle’s historic West End.

The new push to lift the height bar has come from West Perth-based company Henry Street Project Pty Ltd, which bought the Fremantle Workers Club building in April this year.

The development falls under Fremantle council’s policy for the West End conservation area, which limits street-front heights to three storeys but does give some leeway for higher setbacks as long as they’re in keeping with surrounding buildings.

The developer plans to keep the Workers Club’s single-storey facade, but wants to put a screen above to match the heights of the building next door.

“Due to the ‘cellular’ nature of multi-residential living the introduction of the screened facade reinforces the ‘taut’ nature of the existing street condition,” architects Matthews and Scavalli noted in the application.

The development will include office space and 25 apartments.

Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt said he hadn’t seen the latest plans for the development so couldn’t comment other than to say the West End policy was still in place.

by STEVE GRANT