Fremantle Press and CircusWA have together jointly purchased their first permanent home: the historic SEC Substation on Fremantle’s Parry Street, with the support of prominent Perth property developer Adrian Fini.

The state government will also on Tuesday announce $500,000 funding for the two organisations to secure their much-needed permanent home near the intersection of Parry, Quarry and Adelaide streets.

The purchase will also preserve and activate the heritage building near Clancy’s, DADAA and the Elders Wool Stores redevelopment in the soon-to-be reinvigorated East End of the port city.

Known arts supporters Adrian and Michela Fini are making the ambitious plan possible with a low-interest loan to the organisations. Adrian Fini is also behind the Wool Stores project, which is touted as WA’s biggest heritage redevelopment since the State Buildings were completed in Perth more than a decade ago and is likely to inject significant residential population and commercial activity into the area.

Press chief executive Alex Allan said the Press had been looking for a permanent home for years, given their aged and cramped current space, but nothing had been quite right for their requirements, including “the pure number of books that we take with us.”

They had noted the substation vacant, for lease and finally for sale, “peered through the windows” at the beautiful example of interwar industrial architecture, but dismissed the possibility, given the enormity of the building with the huge rear machine hall at the rear.

Another year of searching later, Allan had a chance conversation with CircusWA artistic director Jo Smith, then Sarah Booth of Fremantle social enterprise Spacemarket, which is dedicated to realising value in under-utilised spaces, facilitated further talks between them and finally a joint tour.

“We thought, This is amazing. There’s a perfect spot for Fremantle Press, and at the back a perfect spot for CircusWA. It felt like it was meant to be, especially because, ironically, the substation sits absolutely equidistant between our two existing offices,” Allan said.

“The magic was there. And the next challenge was, how on earth would two arts organisations like us manage to pull this off?”

Enter the Fini Group, which, Allan said, did “all the things that small arts organisations don’t have the capacity to do, like talking to developers and negotiating sales and undertaking due diligence with a huge range of experts and suppliers who would not be in our phone books, but obviously are colleagues and working partners of a big developer.

“Access to that world for two small organisations has been one of the most astonishing bits of contribution,” she said, adding that the Fremantle Press board had also been highly engaged in activating a network of engaged and supportive experts, which led to the kind of “backing and conviction” to get the state government on board.

We haven’t had a public face. We’ve been cooped up in a little office in the heart of Fremantle. We’re really excited to be able to open our doors and to share what we do.

Each outfit will own a separate strata lot in the building. Fremantle Press’ share will cost just under $1 million, which they are halfway through raising with the state contribution and other donations. The fit-out and activation, including a state-of-the-art podcast recording suite, will cost another estimated $750,000-$1 million.

A development application is now with the City of Fremantle and they hope the building will settle in four to six weeks.

The next milestone is a significant LotteryWest grant application, and broader conversations with supporters and funders. They hope for work to begin around September to enable them to move in for the Press’ 50th anniversary next year.

“Fremantle Press has always had to go out into its community to engage with readers and with writers, which we still intend to do and absolutely love doing, with a range of libraries and other community organisations,” Allan said.

“What will this building will allow us to do, though, is to invite some people back to come and see how we work … to create a real sense of belonging for this important WA cultural institution.

“We haven’t had a public face. We’ve been cooped up in a little office in the heart of Fremantle. We’re really excited to be able to open our doors and to share what we do.”

CircusWA artistic director Jo Smith said it was an exciting opportunity to survive and thrive.

Loading

“While we’ll be sad to say farewell to our beautiful Freo Big Top, this building will ensure our community and artistic programs can grow,” she said.

“The Substation will position CircusWA as a nationally recognised training and development centre.”

Minister for Creative Industries and Heritage Simone McGurk said in a statement that the building would become “a dynamic and inclusive arts facility” for two organisations with longstanding impact in Fremantle, where arts and heritage represented its “beating heart”.