Upgrade to offer world-class facilities for Fremantle Dockers and local community
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The City is making solid progress on plans to upgrade facilities across the 6,000sqm Stan Reilly site in central Fremantle, with negotiations involving the Fremantle Football Club (FFC) and the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) well advanced.
The Stan Reilly site is adjacent to Fremantle Oval and facilities currently used by the FFC. Plans to upgrade the site include world-class training facilities for the football club, high-quality and flexible community spaces, provision for a UNDA health sciences facility and space for other commercial operators.
“The City is committed to providing the Fremantle Football Club with the type and quality of facilities they require to remain in Fremantle for the long-term,” said City of Fremantle Mayor, Dr Brad Pettitt. “We are well-advanced in plans for the site and have funding arrangements in place as part of our recently adopted 2012/13 budget to expedite this process.
“The City’s redevelopment plans for this site have been going on for some time and we have had very positive discussions with the Fremantle Football Club and the University of Notre Dame Australia in this time.
“The Fremantle Football Club have, including as recently as this week, advised us that they are happy with the way negotiations are headed and that our proposal ticks all the boxes in terms of the scope and quality of facilities they required in Fremantle. We are now at the point whereby we are ready to move quickly when a final board decision to remain in Fremantle is made,” he said.
Dr Pettitt said that although there was an offer put forward by the City of Cockburn for a new facility on a greenfield site in Cockburn, he was nevertheless confident that the Fremantle Dockers would remain in Fremantle:
“The Dockers spiritual home is in Fremantle at Fremantle Oval and the redevelopment plans will satisfy all of the club’s training and administration needs – with this in mind I see no reason why the Dockers wouldn’t stay in Fremantle and reward the local community, Fremantle supporters and members with a premiership in the not-too distant future.”
A major consideration for redevelopment of the Stan Reilly site is for the new facilities to reflect the needs of the local community, be highly accessible to the public and offer the best mix of land uses to enhance the condition of the site and achieve the long-term social and economic objectives for Fremantle.
“As well as providing world-class training facilities for Fremantle players, the City, the football club and Notre Dame are working together to ensure development of the site will also maximize benefits to the local community,” Dr Pettitt said.
Recent site visit to Melbourne
Fremantle councillor Andrew Sullivan, along with the City’s planning director, Phil St John and community development director, Marisa Spaziani, recently completed a successful fact-finding trip to Melbourne looking at facilities for AFL football clubs. The City’s CEO Graeme Mackenzie and Mayor Pettitt had also looked at AFL facilities while in Melbourne in 2011.
“Our recent visit to Melbourne was to see first-hand the successful partnership forged between the North Melbourne Football Club and the City of Melbourne,” said Ms Spaziani. “We looked at how the facility was planned, developed and managed; as well as how it linked in with community functions. We learnt valuable lessons on what worked and what could be improved upon in order to develop an appropriate model for Fremantle.”
Background
The Stan Reilly site consists of approximately 6,000 square metres of land located in central Fremantle (94 South Terrace).
After calling for proposals from organisations interested in using the site, council decided the submission made by the Fremantle Football Club, which includes a combination of recreation, community and commercial uses, offered the best mix of land uses to enhance the condition of the site and achieve social and economic objectives for Fremantle.
The uses proposed by the Fremantle Football Club, and supported by the City include:
- recreation - indoor training facilities for the Fremantle Football Club, also for use by other professional sports, local sporting groups, educational institutions and other community groups
- community – 1,000sqm of flexible community space, available for a range of community purposes to be determined by the City of Fremantle and Fremantle Football Club
- commercial - commercial space including the health sciences faculty of the university of Notre Dame Australia as the anchor tenant and other tenants, for example, a private gymnasium, cafe or other health type commercial service.
The City sought community feedback on the proposed land use to assist in finalising a recommendation to the state government. A working group was also established and consists of representatives from the City of Fremantle, Fremantle Football Club and University of Notre Dame Australia. The working group meets monthly to work through various development options.
The state government, as the owners of the site, will make the final decision on future development