PLANS for a huge residential development on the Point Street carpark site have been lodged by Point Street Partners. 

The item came before Fremantle Council last Wednesday, which decided to recommend the proposal to JDAP, which is the responsible authority, for conditional approval.

The site runs between Cantonment, Point and Adelaide streets and Princess May Park. The new buildings would be eight storeys high and accommodate 215 apartments, which would make it the biggest residential development in the Fremantle CBD.  

Heirloom has 183 apartments, LIV has 166 units and Johnson Court 120.

I specifically like it that the building opens up with a courtyard to historic Princess May Park, and the vertical facade break-up of the building along Adelaide Street. 

I assume it will have the same architectural detail in Cantonment Street?

There is a big interest in developing the run-down inner east of our city, with Silverleaf Investments having already started on the development of the former Woolstores shopping centre. They are building a new Coles supermarket, office space and childcare facilities. Silverleaf has approved plans also for a hotel on the site, and there is a Stage III plan for the most eastern part, that fronts the debilitated Elders Woolstores.

Adrian Fini’s Hesperia bought the Elders building from Marilyn New, and Hesperia’s representative Sarah Booth has been actively reaching out to stakeholders and interested members of the Freo community, to hear our ideas on how the site could be developed. 

Hesperia genuinely want to create something special there.

City of Fremantle’s strategic planning director Russell Kingdom told me in passing last Friday, that the city is engaging with all three developers, to get a cohesive and collaborate approach to developing a good public realm on and between the three major sites. 

I believe that is essential, and also the coordination of public art, as part of the percentage for the arts policy Fremantle council has.

If they get it right it would be an enormous game changer for the inner east of Fremantle, so what should we be hoping for? 

It would make a significant difference to have many hundreds more people living in that part of the city. 

It would create a much safer environment day and night, with a lot of passive surveillance and eyes on the streets. 

It would become a hive of activity, that would hopefully encourage new retailers to open up in Fremantle. 

That is exactly what our gorgeous little city desperately needs and wants.

I have mostly received positive feedback about the development, so it is disappointing, but predictable, that the usual small group of anti development people do not like the plans, because the proposed development is much bigger than Johnson Court. 

The Point Street development is bigger, but it actually looks like three buildings around a courtyard, so very different from Johnson Court. 

I would love to see more terraced townhouses in Fremantle though, not just the predictable apartment developments. 

I would also like to see co-living opportunities for students, where they have shared community spaces, kitchens and laundries. 

Larger apartments for families would also be desirable. 

We could definitely do with more public green spaces, but the City of Fremantle is not good at creating an ambience where people want to linger.

Pioneer Park has been neglected, and only now Clancy’s has improved Princess May Park with a children’s nature playground. 

Let’s hope that all the developers will commence construction soon. 

That also applies for the two approved hotels;  one by Tattarang near the Fremantle Markets, and one by the Yolk Property Group, opposite the under construction new Police Complex. 

Silverleaf have already started on their tourist accommodation at the former Courthouse at Parry Street.

I am delighted to see development activity in Fremantle.

It went into hibernation with the Covid pandemic and it is ever so slowly waking out of its slumber.

Roel Loopers/Freoview