Waterfront not accommodating

Landcorp is seeking support from the City of Albany to change plans for the Albany Waterfront project in a desperate attempt to attract accommodation developers to the site.

The $110 million project suffered a major blow last year when the State Government revealed no suitable applications to build a four-star hotel and short-stay apartments on the site had been received.

At a council briefing on Tuesday, representatives from LandCorp said they had a possible solution to make the site more financially viable.

LandCorp is proposing changes to the Albany Waterfront Structure and Precinct Plans, which will come before council at the ordinary meeting on July 19.

Landcorp’s planning consultant Linley Lutton told council the feedback they had received from the industry indicated there was not enough dedicated parking for the facility and not enough short-stay accommodation planned.

The changes being sought include increasing building height limits and carparks.

Dr Lutton told council the proposed changes would allow the number of short-stay apartments to potentially increase from 30 to 80.

Cr Ray Hammond told council he was hugely supportive of the “long overdue” concept, but said he was concerned the occupancy rate LandCorp had used for modelling would be difficult to achieve.

LandCorp business manager David McFerran told councillors he was aware attracting a developer would still be difficult.

“The tourism market is particularly difficult at the moment,” he said.

“At this point in time, we want to make every effort to try and attract a proponent to this development.”

A representative from Landcorp told council they were determined to achieve a development by 2014 to help cater for the expected influx of visitors during the Anzac centenary.

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