FREMANTLE council has thrown a rental lifeline to long-term High Street business Record Finder.

Owner Mark Lahogue was uncertain about his future after his landlord floated turning his building to apartments and moved the business onto a monthly lease.

But Fremantle council has offered Mr Lahogue a five-year lease at the old Brooker Furniture shop a few doors down.

“It’s a much wider shop with a proper window display,” Mr Lahogue says.

• Record Finder owner Mark Lahogue with some 180 gsm vinyl. Photo by Stephen Pollock

“It will be a bit sad to leave the old place, but this will give me and the business a new lease of life.

“It will take me a while to move across, as I have masses of stock and even more upstairs!”

The Record Finder has been in Freo for 31 years and trading on High Street for 11.

Mr Lahogue says his decision to sell new and reissued 180-gsm vinyl, which is popular with baby boomers and hipsters, has given his business a fillip in recent years.

Mills Records’ future is also uncertain after its landlord announced he was transforming the Adelaide Street store into five-storey tourist accommodation with retail on the ground floor.

Mills is one of the oldest records shops in Fremantle, trading since at least 1945.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK