City of Fremantle back to the market with Kings Square hospitality lease

The City of Fremantle will re-tender the lease for the hospitality space in its new civic building in Kings Square after failing to reach agreement with its preferred applicant.

In January Fremantle Council approved the lease terms for the venue in the commercial section of the newly named Walyalup Civic Centre.

The proposal from the City’s preferred applicant was to lease all three floors of the triangular portion of the building, with a café, bar and alfresco area on the ground floor, dining room on the first floor and function space on the top floor.

City of Fremantle Director of City Business Glen Dougall said negotiations with the proposed tenant were concluded this week.

“The City’s preferred applicant submitted a counter to the offer approved by the council at its January meeting,” Mr Dougall said.

“The City did not accept the counter offer and provided until last Friday for the applicant to submit another proposal more in line with the position adopted by the council.

“Unfortunately the last proposal received by the City last week was still not considered acceptable.

“At this time it is the intention of the City to go back to the market through a tender process. An item will be included on the agenda for the Finance, Policy, Operations and Legislation Committee meeting on Wednesday to consider the criteria to include in the tender.

“The prospective tenant from the recent negotiations has been told they may participate in that process if they wish to be further considered.”

The City of Fremantle is currently undertaking a $270 million renewal of Kings Square in partnership with Sirona Capital.

The project includes Sirona’s redevelopment of the old Myer and Queensgate sites to create offices for more than 1700 state government employees and the revolutionary FOMO food, art and retail concept, the construction of the City of Fremantle’s new Walyalup Civic Centre, and the rejuvenation of the public spaces that surround the site. 

For more information on the Kings Square Renewal Project visit the Kings Square Fremantle website, or watch this video.