TUART Place has secured its future at 24 High Street after years of uncertainty, with the new owners of the building insisting on a five-year lease.
The Fremantle service, which supports adults who grew up in out-of-home care, had feared it could be forced out when the Christian Brothers put the old Cleopatra Hotel building on the market. Staff had been preparing for the possibility of having to relocate at short notice.
Instead, more than 100 people gathered at the centre last month to celebrate the reprieve.
Tuart Place director Philippa White said it was a great outcome after years of uncertainty.
• More than 100 people came out to help celebrate Tuart Place’s new five-year lease, a stipulation before their new landlords would buy the old hotel. Photos by Rebecca Johansson – Compose Photography
New owners Leonie and Steve Baldock have links to the Wright mining dynasty, with the latter having an interest in Fremantle architecture and plans to restore the building’s facade.
Dr White said the pair kept a pretty quiet profile and didn’t know much about Tuart Place when they became interested in the property.
“We said to them, we’d like you to come and we want to thank you for buying the building, because when it was on the market and we were still in here, there were developers galore in and out, and they all wanted us out immediately.
“So then the news came through that this couple had bought it on the condition that we were given a five year lease by the previous owners.”
The lease has also opened the door for Tuart Place to expand.
“We’ve negotiated to rent the remainder of the ground floor because we’ve just got funding for further service provision, so we’re expanding,” Dr White said.
The extra space will be used for “care finders”, who will help clients engage with aged care services so they can either stay at home with a safety net, or find a place in a residential care facility.
“It’s a great service, and without it, there’d be people just kind of dying in their homes, because they don’t have family this group, they don’t have social networks very much,” Dr White said.
“They’re poor, they’re illiterate.
“Dementia’s kind of become increasingly common.
“So there’s lives being saved by that.”
Dr White said Tuart Place also hoped to renovate a commercial kitchen and common room at the rear of the building.
“Our model has always been ideally to have a big kitchen where people come and have cook ups, cooking classes and share the making of food and eating food. So the back area really lends itself to that.”
Tuart Place program coordinator Tash Samuelraj said the open day had begun with a smoking ceremony, didgeridoo performance and Welcome to Country, and came with a sense of reprieve over not having to move out.
“You know how some places can change their location easily, but for Tuart Place that was something that we couldn’t do very easily because there’s such a sense of place here.”
Before the sale, the service had been preparing to move into the old Dockers change rooms at Fremantle Oval if it had been forced out.
“The city of Fremantle, was great,” Dr White said.
“They found some venues that we would move into at short notice. So our plan was, if a developer buys it, we’ve got to get out fast, because we would have a month’s notice.
by STEVE GRANT