When the $25m Baillie House refit into an entertainment precinct opens this summer, it will mark the start of a renewal for the state’s biggest café strip.
When the $25 million refurbishment of Western Australia’s first maternity hospital into an entertainment precinct opens its doors this summer, it will mark the start of a fresh period of renewal for the state’s biggest café strip.
The heritage-listed Elizabeth Baillie House, previously known as Edward Millen Home and Rotunda Hospital, is in the advanced stages of redevelopment by Blackoak Capital to be turned into a cluster of pubs, a café, bakery, gelato bar, distillery, artist’s studios, animal farm, market, and orchard.
Carl Leembruggen lives just up the road from the precinct.
He is also The Leederville Precinct’s general manager and has been involved in development of Baillie Hill’s hospitality offerings
“I walk past this almost every day… and it was always quite a dark and dingy sort of site,” Mr Leembruggen said.
“I didn't actually know what was recessed back here until I got to site and I was like ‘oh my goodness, what a gem’.
“When Blackoak was walking through the master plan for what was going to happen to the site I thought it was incredible, it was exactly what myself and my family would like to see.”
The Town of Victoria Park is simultaneously upgrading the surrounding park at the top end of the café strip with an ampitheatre and playground suitable for autistic children, claimed to be the first of its kind in the state.
A pedestrian link to the recently upgraded Oats Street train station will also be upgraded.
Town of Victoria Park Mayor Karen Vernon said the public-private partnership between the Town and Blackoak would turn Baillie Hill into a regional destination.
“We have consulted with Autism Western Australia on the design of the new playground, so children are going to love it, because it's going to be the first autism-designed playground for neurodiverse children,” she said.
“There will also be an amazing amphitheatre, which we are building into the park, with a performance space that will be weather protected.”
The development has been backed by a $4m heritage grant from the federal government.
Victoria Park’s Albany Highway is home to more than 400 businesses, more than 150 of which are food outlets.
Within a stone’s throw of Baillie Hill plans have been put forward to redevelop Franklin’s Tavern, and a development application to build a $28m Woolworths just up the road has been approved.
A new café is being built nearby and one of four adjacent empty blocks remaining on Albany Hwy sold last year for $2m to developer Frans Pinner.
The last mechanic's yard in the area was recently converted into a childcare centre.
Developer Norm Carey's Goldblaze Nominees last year revealed plans for a $27m, 16-storey apartment tower at Oats Street station.
And Business News understands a stalled medium density housing development over the back fence named East & Co is close to breaking ground.
Mr Leembruggen said more activity on the strip would lift business activity for all operators.
Dane Oddy will be the man with the task of running the precinct once the doors are thrown open.
Mr Oddy said Baillie Hill would become the new meeting hub for the area.
“You don't often get this opportunity to have a heritage-listed building in the middle of Victoria Park or in the suburbs,” he said.
“The restoration of this beautiful old building along with the new hospitality offerings will be great for the area.
“We have had a few artists of the local community already hit us up for some kind of rental spaces, and we are working with Spacemarket at the same time to hopefully fill those spaces towards January.”
Blackoak Capital founder Tim Mack said the precinct was about three months away from opening.
“Budget has been a challenge, lots of surprises along the way, but we have been working really well with our builder to solve those,” he said.
“We have had 89 different subcontractors on site and over 500 individuals working on the project.”
The revamped park is also penciled in to host markets.
Two weekly markets are currently held nearby – the large Manning Markets on Saturday and a small local market run by the Rotary Club on Sunday.
Mr Leembruggen said Baillie Hill was hoping to attract a third-party operator, rather than run the market itself.
