“We have been incredibly loyal” – Natasha Atkinson, CEO Fremantle Markets Pty Ltd

FREMANTLE Markets Pty Ltd says it will be forced to move to a new location if the City chose not to renew its lease or proceed to public tender for the rundown heritage-list site it has operated for nearly 50 years.
“Over 48 years, the business has grown and we are one of your longest serving tenants,” CEO Natasha Atkinson told the FPOL committee whose members except South Ward Cr Marija Vuyjcic and Beaconsfield Cr Fedele Camarda last night supported the advertising of a proposed business plan for a new lease.
Cr Vujcic, seconded by Cr Camarda, successfully moved to have the controversial item presented to full council so all elected members could consider the business plan.
Confirming ‘urgent compliance works’ were needed to the building from which she has run the markets for more than a decade, Ms Atkinson said: “We bring in over 2.6 million visitors each year … we want to stay in the building we started our business in. And we are prepared to invest in the building.
“However, in return, we request a 20 year tenure, and no further delays. If the council proceeds to tender or you chose not to renew the lease with FMPL you will force us to move the Fremantle markets to another location which will provide our 150-plus tenants with certainty they require to operate their business.
“We have spent $4.5m promoting and advertising Fremantle Markets, its traders and Fremantle since 2008. Our current marketing budget is over $300,000 a year.”
She added: “We have been incredibly loyal and we are asking for council to follow its own process and recognise we have been great tenants delivering an excellent financial result to the city through rent, parking and promotion. If the city goes against its policy what sort of example does this set?”
GTL Investments director Tim Foster implored the committee to vote down the proposed business plan he said was riddled with inaccuracies and misleading statements.
“Only now under the prospect of taking the lease out to public tender have the operators proposed to fund the works, not committed just proposed,” he said. “First, you have to give them another 20 years.”
He said the City could forego rent for three years to raise $5.2m for much-needed renovations and upgrades, the idea discussed at a meeting in July last year with CEO Glen Dougall and City business director Matt Hammond. Elected members received details of GTL’s alternative plan on Monday.
According to the FPOL officers report, “The City believes it too risky to go to public tender because it could result in the loss of existing stallholders”. Proposed refurbishment works it says the current tenant has committed to funding may also be delayed, “due to the public process impacting timelines associated with tender process for construction works”.
Mr Foster told StreetWise Mr Dougall advised him the City would not revisit the markets lease until January 2023. Mr Foster never heard back. He again wrote to the City on May 4 this year, “surprised that an offer for nil inputs with council funds is not attractive”, and requested the Mayor be informed.
On Saturday, the CEO invited Mr Foster to attend the FPOL meeting.

‘Would we do this to Gino’s?’

MAYOR Hannah Fitzhardinge said in conversations with staff and elected members about the risks of adopting ‘different scenarios’, particularly the opportunity costs of losing the existing tenant, “the sense I got out of those conversations was once those risks were evaluated more people were in the camp of, ‘we’re better off instead extending this lease’.
“We can’t extend this lease and take other proposals at the same time under the Act and current business plan.”
She added there are “really deep inherent risks” going to market including losing the name ‘Fremantle Markets’, which the City does not own; create uncertainty among stallholders she said currently were “frozen in time”; and rental income during any transition with could take years and leave the site an empty shell.
“Another question we raised with ourselves is, ‘would we do this to Gino’s?’ The gallery would be full, am I right? People would be angry.”
The Mayor said she had asked the CEO whether he had spoken to other experienced markets operators: “They outlined a couple of conversations the CEO had had with different people who had come forward with proposals but certainly weren’t in the league of markets operators. They were business people.”
Mr Foster runs Australia’s biggest backpacker hostel in a heritage-listed building in Hobart and run and leased stalls at Wanneroo Markets.
Cr Vujcic said she was ‘absolutely mystified’: “I don’t know what meeting you were in Mayor Fitzhardinge but I would have considered this proposal to be significant.
“You are driving it in one direction only. All I’m hearing is one proposal and fear attached to it.”
Cr Vujcic said according to the City the existing operator over the past 15 years had spent $30,000 a year on maintaining the site under its current lease that expires in 2026.
She the markets are in a ‘dire state’ and the list of works which should have been done are hardly endorsement of good maintenance and operating spend by either the City or tenant.
“We may not be getting the best outcome from the current operator and at worst I suggest a poor outcome for the City and ratepayers.”
Hilton Cr Ben Lawver said the markets are one of the most iconic assets in Fremantle that generates significant revenue for ratepayers, “to consider anything, it would have to be a very compelling case”.
North Ward Cr Bryn Jones said GTL’s proposal should not have been presented to elected members, suggesting the company should, “go away and wait and see if there is a tender”.
Hilton Cr Frank Mofflin said he was interested in conversations about other approaches to managing the City’s most important commercial asset, but felt the proposed business plan was written to, “manage the markets and make sure we look after our number one asset”.
City Ward Cr Rachel Pemberton said she gets ‘random’ approaches from people proposing business ideas, “all the time. I make a judgement call and I think the staff have done that as well”.
She added the Saccone family has held the Gino’s lease for 52 years, “do we grill them on how much maintenance they do on the building?”
Fremantle Society John Dowson told the committee the proposed business plan was flawed and should be deferred and rewritten because it lacked the valuable background the community and councillors needed to ensure the markets site was properly maintained.
“The status quo at the markets is not good enough given the poor state of the asset and poor return to ratepayers while the tenant makes $2.2m per year clear profit,” he said.