Business Station will leave Welshpool when its lease expires in September.
Camera IconBusiness Station will leave Welshpool when its lease expires in September. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Business Station to leave Welshpool

Jaime ShurmerCanning Gazette

BUSINESS incubator Business Station has told the City of Canning it will not continue its lease in Welshpool after it expires in September, paving the way for the City to look for more profitable uses for the site.

On Tuesday night council is due to discuss a report on incubation services in the City of Canning, after deferring the matter three times since March while the future of Business Station was negotiated.

The council will consider a procedural amended motion initiated by the executive, in recognition of Business Services choosing not to renew its lease.

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Business Station chief executive Kim Charles had told the Canning Times in June that the city was asking for rent the not-for-profit group could not afford.

The city hopes to move business incubation services into local libraries like Riverton – which it will soon close for seven weeks for refurbishment from August 3 – and take rent directly from the business that had been at the Welshpool Business Enterprise Centre should they choose to remain there.

It is proposing to allow all licensees to be given at least six months’ notice of any requirement to vacate, should a different long-term use for the site be determined by the council in the future.

Business Station did not feel moving its services to libraries would be a good fit.

Business Station, as manager of WBEC for the past year, had enabled fledgling businesses, but this included the inheritance of some businesses that were controversially enjoying long-term rental subsidies.

The project cost and details of the Riverton Library refurbishment is yet to be disclosed by the city.

Lot 800 Murray Street South in Welshpool, where the WBEC currently sits, has previously been valued at $13.2 million.