AT least five large developers have knocked at Cottesloe aged care provider Curtin Care’s door about the sale of the neighbouring WA Institute for Deaf Education site by the State Government this month.
Curtin Care operates Wearne Hostel owned by Cottesloe, Claremont, Mosman Park and Peppermint Grove councils west of the WAIDE.
Curtin Care chair David Cox said his organisation did not want to buy or develop WAIDE’s 20,000sq m, which is currently zoned development, but said multiple inquiries had been made.
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READ NOW“They’re wondering what opportunities they have with us and have also been asking what development we’d tolerate, but we look forward to creating an integrated village with multiple services for the residents and the local population,” Mr Cox said.
He said Curtin Care would instead work with any buyer of the site on a mixed-use village with varied densities for the young and old between Curtin Avenue and Marine Parade.
None of the developers who approached Curtin Care discussed potential heights and densities at WAIDE.
That site is currently without a structure plan defining both its potential development and value, but the Government has said its heritage buildings must be kept and a home found for the WA Foundation for Deaf Children which works from the red brick, 1898-built building.
This week, Cottesloe Council was the last to approve a draft Master Plan to redevelop Curtin Care’s site up to five storeys west of WAIDE.
A development application for the project is planned to go to a development assessment panel after the start of next year.
The council later went behind closed doors to discuss a registration of its interest in WAIDE’s sale.
It will also develop an amendment to its local planning scheme to protect the local amenity and set binding development controls if the Government sells its site.
However, there was no buyer after 2014 in a $250 million firesale by the previous government, when its value was estimated about $50 million.