SOME magic is coming to Fremantle’s Piazza and a certain Pickled Fairy is hoping to see the space transform following fresh New Yorker ownership. 

After recently completing her first lap around the sun as owner of The Pickled Fairy, Sandie McArdell also celebrated her 27th year as a fairy with a hint that something exciting is on the horizon. 

The almost empty Piazza has been sold for $12.5 million by PARC Developments to Western Australian-born New York businesswoman Bronwyn Owen, who Fairy Sandie says wants to revamp the space into Fremantle’s own version of London’s colourful Neal’s Yard. 

“She has a similar vision to me,” Fairy Sandie said.

“She’s [thinking of] putting in a children’s museum. She’s got visions for art studios, a wellness centre, a radio station, cafes and all that beautiful stuff.”

• Fairy Sandie McArdell has completed a lap around the sun as owner of The Pickled Fairy.

Ms Owens heads The Children’s Investment Fund, a London-based hedge fund that invests in global companies and real estate — but it seems she is reconnecting to her home soil. 

Fairy Sandie told the Chook before Ms Owen swooped in, the Piazza was up for sale as an empty premise, which led her to investigate other sites in Freo.

“I did look at moving because I thought we might have too— I better be prepared. I kept finding myself trying on these great spaces but then it just felt like ‘oh no’ it has be where we are. 

“I feel like we’re the heart of Fremantle.”

Fairy Sandie said Ms Owen’s ideas for the Piazza were “everything on her vision board” and left her “so happy” for what’s to come.  

The Pickled Fairy was brought to life by Jenny and Rex Diggins— the idea, Fairy Sandie says, had visited Jenny in a dream. Thirty four years of magic later, Ms and Mr Diggins put the business up for sale at the end of their lease, selling it to Fairy Sandie last year on a month-to-month basis.

“I wrote a list of what I would like the new [Pickled Fairy shop] owner to be like and I just said to the fairies ‘everyday you have to make wishes that we get somebody who really wants to turn it into a space that supports us and brings it back to how it was when I first started being a fairy’,” Fairy Sandie said. 

And that someone turned out, was her. 

“I’ve always felt honoured as a fairy to be a child’s first friend. So those that don’t have any friends… we fairies are there for them.”

by ISLA TOMLINSON