By ERWIN CHLANDA
A four or five storey building with retail on the ground floor, two or three levels of car parking and a restaurant on top is a “concept we’re test marketing” says the Yeperenye shopping centre Managing Director Owen Cole.
The complex proposed for the centre’s outdoor carpark, the site of the former Pizza Hut, would be no taller than the Supreme Court building.
Mr Cole (pictured) says in his view the project would meet a need and an investor has already expressed interest.
When asked if that investor is the Aboriginal owned Centrecorp Mr Cole said it is not.
The purpose of the additional car park would be to enhance the businesses in the shopping centre but without boom gates: “People drive through them,” he says. There would be low-key enforcement of a three hour limit.
Asked whether the facility would take the place of the multi-storey car park next to the historic Hartley Street School proposed by the Town Council, Mr Cole said he has now been involved in five “reiterations” of the CBD’s revitalisation. Four of them had come to nothing and he is not optimistic about the current fifth.
He says the proposed restaurant and bar would be a family venue, for good meals and a quiet drink, no pokies and closing around 10pm.
“At this point we’re just exploring it.”
PHOTO: The project is inspired by the 2KW in Adelaide (at top), and similar ones in other cities, says Mr Cole.