The Fremantle land initially marked for a four-star hotel is now under new ownership after construction of a proposed DoubleTree by Hilton failed to start.
City of Fremantle council has approved the transfer of sale of 8 Point Street from SKS Group to Point Street Partners at its meeting this week.
ASIC documents show Leonie Baldock, granddaughter of mining magnate Peter Wright, as the sole director of Point Street Partners.
Developer Sirona Urban plans to undertake a project at the Fremantle Point Street site, working with the new landowner.
"We’re grateful the City of Fremantle has approved the transfer of the site and we look forward to preparing a proposal that will deliver a residential scheme once market conditions have stabilised," Sirona Urban managing director Matthew McNeilly said.
"This will be the next phase in Sirona Urban’s renewal work in Fremantle, adding to our work at Kings Square, the Heirloom apartments and the Quest Apartment Hotel in the West End."
Sirona Urban developed the $270 million Kings Square, which houses FOMO, in Fremantle.
Fremantle Deputy Mayor Frank Mofflin said the land was sold 10 years ago with the intention of having it developed and the intent had not changed.
"There is an opportunity to realise the intent of that sale … realise a better outcome now than what was intended initially with a hotel development," he said.
"If we’re able to gain a residential development out of this, that’s going to be a far better outcome in the long-term sustainability of Fremantle from a vibrancy and financial perspective."
According to an agenda prepared by city officers, Malaysian-based SKS Group bought the land on the corner of Point and Cantonment streets for $10 million in 2012, following an open tender process by the city.
The city imposed sale conditions for the buyer, including construction starting within three years of receiving planning approval and full completion within five years.
SKS Group planned to build a seven-storey, 150-room hotel on the Point Street site and received approval from the Metro South-West Joint Development Assesment Panel in 2014.
However, SKS advised the city it would not meet the sale conditions and requested a one-year extension to the sale agreement in 2016, which the council approved.
According to the council agenda, SKS asked for another extension, this time for two years, in 2017.
The group submitted amended plans for a $45 million DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on the site in 2020, which was described in the responsible authority report as "substantially different in design and form" compared to the 2014 design.
Despite the JDAP approving the updated 2020 plan, only the construction of a three-level public car parking structure of 308 bays was completed on the site.
Shops and a cinema fronting Adelaide Street were demolished.
The city has an option to buy back the land if the buyer failed to start construction in three years of receiving development approval.
"We really want something to happen with that land," Cr Su Groome said at the council meeting.
"We don’t want to buy the land back with money we don’t have to then go through a stupid government tender process to try and sell the land again and no doubt not get a good deal because of the constraints on that deal."
Cr Marija Vujcic was the only councillor voting against the officer's recommendation to approve the transfer of sale and tried to rally her fellow councillors to take more time to analyse the deal.
"I just have a real problem about how we got ourselves into these spaces and I have a real problem that the ratepayers are going to miss out here," she said.
SKS Group has a Perth office and was behind the DoubleTree by Hilton Perth Waterfront and Northbridge hotels.
