Versatile Construction: Developers of Bay View Terrace project to pay half-price parking rates

Developers behind an upcoming hotel and apartment complex in Claremont have been given half-price parking rates while they build, after the town recently increased the $50 per bay per day rate to $100.

Australian company Versatile Construction is preparing to build a major mixed-use development at 10-40 Bay View Terrace, and was suddenly staring down a $100 per bay parking fee for the 771 days expected to complete the project.

Considering the 15 parking bays included, it would cost $1,156,500 to hire bays for the crew to load and off-load materials near the construction site, and implement traffic management.

But the contractor argued that when the building agreement was made several years ago, the parking fees were only $50 per bay per day, meaning the original total was half that at $578,250.

They requested council approve a fee concession of $656,500, leaving them to pay the remaining $500,000 parking fees to reflect the original expected cost.

Councillors unanimously agreed with this, but Cr Ryan Fernandes revealed the crew would now be using an additional parking bay to complete the project, bringing the total cost up to $1,233,600.

Councillors voted 6-1 to support his amendment of a slightly reduced $616,800 concession, leaving the crew to pay to pay the remaining $616,800.

“I think it’s not 15 bays, it’s 16 bays now that are being taken up ... I agree with the concept of we can’t slug them with a higher fee, given when they were budgeting that’s what was advertised and we doubled our fee over that period,” he said.

“I propose going back to the original fee we had which was $50 ... so we’re not discounting it, we’re not penalising them for the fact we’ve doubled our fees, but at the same time we’re not giving them a discount greater than what our previous fee would have been.”

The developers will also pay for damages bonds, a hoarding fee, tree pruning costs, traffic management plan assessments and public art relocation.

Councillors approved a portion of the unbudgeted revenue collected be put towards promotional and supportive initiatives, events and activities in the Claremont town centre, given the impending “huge impact” on local businesses.

“I think Bay View Terrace will be severely impacted by this construction and the fact that we’ve got the St. Quentin’s one going on as well, this is going to have a huge impact on the town centre,” Cr Jill Goetze said.

“So I think it’s very important that we provide promotion and activation to ensure that the businesses can actually survive these two builds and to make sure that they’re actually still shops that are open and that the town centre is still viable when these builds are completed.”

The project is expected to commence construction in January 2027, and a traffic management plan for the area is currently being finalised.