Rich-lister Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s proposed Indiana Teahouse project has narrowly dodged a rejection at a Cottesloe council meeting earlier this week.
The mining magnate’s proposed Woods Bagot-designed plans include a renovation of the Indiana Teahouse built in the mid-1990s in a mock Colonial style on Marine Parade at Cottesloe’s foreshore in Western Australia.
It also includes plans for a four-storey hotel development across the road from the proposal, which would include a penthouse and a private rooftop area for the Indiana Teahouse.
Both the teahouse and the proposed hotel site are on crown land.
Forrest currently leases the Teahouse building from the Town of Cottesloe and requires permission to redevelop it.
The council has currently deferred a decision on that, pending advice on the updated design.
In February, the Cottesloe Residents and Ratepayers Association raised two electors’ motions to reject the plans as they went against the town’s 2004 policy of developing land west of Marine Parade.
In this week’s council meeting, the motions were rejected. The council said that upholding them would conflict with a December 2021 resolution to seek independent advice on the proposed plans with Forrest’s development company Tattarang, part of his property arm Fiveight, bearing the cost.
The CRRA’s chairman and former councillor Greg Boland said it did not mean that the council had approved the proposal.
“They deferred the motion because they had these other processes to go through,” Boland said.
“They explained why they thought Tattarang should pay because otherwise, the council, and therefore the ratepayers ,will be going to considerable expense to do all those assessments and the proposal may not proceed.”
The independent advice sought would cover the commercial, legal, heritage and environmental aspects of the proposed plans.
Boland said that while the update to the Indiana Teahouse was generally welcomed, the hotel on the opposite side was concerning locals as it prevented public access to public land.
“There’s two main objections,” Boland said.
“The hotel is the primary one. Secondly, there are some exclusive areas within the proposal. There'd be an exclusive rooftop area on Indiana.
“So what we're about really is community accessibility to the site and that means keeping the open aspects around the Indiana building because the beach policy is to not have any new developments.”
Boland said the hotel development means opening the door to privatise public land.
“We're essentially privatising public space, because this would be a private motel on public land, [albeit] it would be a long-term lease,” Boland said.
“The community would never get back the open space and that's why it's quite symbolic.
“It will be allowed that a private hotel can be established on a beach essentially.”
Former WA premier and Cottesloe resident Colin Barnett agreed, telling media it would set a precedent.
“No one would object to a properly managed bar or licensed premises, but once you introduce accommodation on the beach you intrude into a public asset,” Barnett said.
“Once you do that, in my view, the beach is likely to become almost a private area.”
The plans have been in contention since 2019 when Forrest’s Perth Venues company bought the leasehold for the property from Melbourne-based Red Rock Group.
In 2019, Forrest organised a design competition that failed after residents said that they wanted no or minimal changes to the building.
Concept plans were then redesigned and presented to the council in 2020 after more details were requested.
In 2021, the property was added to the State Heritage List after singer Taylor Swift raved about the building, mistakingly believing it being a century old.
Forrest lodged a request to have the proposal be assessed by the state development assessment unit but as the property is on crown land, the council needs to approve this request.
Forrest’s request for the state planning minister to intervene in the process was also declined with the government stating that the process had to go through the council.
Cottesloe is seeing a flurry of applications being lodged with the state development assessment unit.
Gary Dempsey’s proposed plans for luxury apartments at 120 Marine Parade were approved with seven storeys, two above the five-storey height limit council would have imposed on the project.
This has led to other developers, including local business man Stan Quinlivan, lodging plans with the state development authority that go beyond those height limits.
Quinlivan’s current plans are for a 12-storey, three-tower hotel and apartment complex on the site of the 115-year-old Ocean Beach Hotel.
Other key projects going through the SDAU process include the Seapines project at the corner of Johnson Street and Marine Parade and a seven-storey project at 122 Marine Parade.
The Town of Cottesloe currently has a $22-million masterplan in place for the Cottesloe Foreshore Redevelopment Project to provide better access to the foreshore and more public green space.
Forrest has a keen interest in the hotel sector, picking up Olivia Newton-John’s Gaia Retreat in Byron Bay in October 2021 for $30 million.
Forrest also bought the head leases for Lizard Island, 250km north of Cairns, for $42 million, conditional on Delaware North continuing to sublease the land for $2 million a year.
The Dingaal First Nations people view Dyiigurra (Lizard Island) as a sacred place.
