Fremantle Herald: ALL QUIET ON THE WOOLSTORES FRONT Woolstores shopping centre owner EG Funds Management has gone quiet on its development plans. After proudly talking up its vision for Fremantle two years ago, the company has failed to respond to numerous attempts by the Herald to find out why there didn’t appear to be any progress. Piquing the Chook’s interest was EG’s decision in July to flog the two old Toyota caryards on Queen Victoria Street. Back in July 2010, the company’s former WA manager Alex Banzic told the West Australian he was keen as mustard to develop the two sites into a mix of retail and residential. “The reason we bought it was because we wanted to develop it (but) the current zoning really doesn’t allow for any,” Mr Banzic had told the West. Zoning was also cited as holding up EG’s Woolstores vision, which originally included three 18-storey towers. The council’s Amendment 49, which paves the way for 10 storeys on the site, was gazetted in January. The project also isn’t included in the $1 billion of projects mayor Brad Pettitt says are heading Fremantle’s way. That means council staff aren’t actively in discussions with EG, but Dr Pettitt says Coles has a lease on the site until 2015, so he wouldn’t expect anything this early anyway. Asked about the sale of the Toyota sites, Dr Pettitt says that fits the company’s profile. “I think it’s fair to say that EG are property investors, not developers. As investors I think what they do is they go in and then get the conditions right, and maybe a [development application] in place and then they sell the property on.” by STEVE GRANT (September 27, 2013) LINK: heraldonlinejournal/2013/09/27/all-quiet-on-the-woolstores-front/
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 04:02:35 +0000
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