FREMANTLE’S ordinary council meeting last night got a nice surprise in the monthly financial report, which highlighted an increased rates revenue of $1.78 million in the year-to-date budget.

Director of City Business Matt Hammond said the key properties that made up the bulk of the substantial amount of revenue:

“It was a noticeable jump that was mainly attributable to FOMO.  FOMO like all the other commercial properties went through GRV [gross rental value] revaluation process and as a result of that the value significantly increased and so did our rates take.

“Pleasingly, if you look at the numbers now, the rate revenue generated from that complex is now exceeding the commercial revenues we were generating prior to that redevelopment through the carpark and our existing tenancies. So it’s a really good result.”

Mr Hammond said about rates from the redeveloped Coles supermarket at Hilton:

“Given that property’s now been redeveloped and was also revalued, the rates income we’ve generated from that has gone from about $100,000 per annum to up over a million dollars per annum, so another significant increase, which we’ll see reach the books in the next monthly financials.”

Councillor Jenny Archibald (joining via video link) on the importance of acknowledging the long-term city projects that are starting to deliver:

“This is such a wonderful thing to see starting to happen and hopefully we start to see it more and more in the CBD area as well.

“Tonight’s planning application [8 Point Street] is another; if that development goes ahead it will just be a phenomenal input in terms of the economy of our council and its ability to deliver services.  It’s just wonderful to see these major projects start to filter through to our revenue side, which is highly beneficial to our community.”

This is good news for Fremantle, especially since the Kings Square Redevelopment Project has received a lot of criticism.