Beach St Co.
Beach St Co. is one of the newest additions to Fremantle – further adding to the bar/restaurant scene Fremantle is renowned for. If/when you Google Beach St Co., you may recognise it as the old Kiosk Cafe. Stefano Rossi has revamped, renovated and reinvigorated his much loved riverside Cafe and elevated it to a premium, modern bar/restaurant. Canford were engaged by Stefano back in late 2017 – where the idea for this project first began.
Our scope of works for this project was extensive. This was inclusive of informing and advising on the design concept and mood boarding, applying and obtaining all necessary Council approvals, renegotiating lease terms, applying for a new tavern restricted liquor licence, and the coordination of Council and State Government approvals.
This was no easy process. Over the course of our 3 year tenure with Stefano, roadblocks were bound to come up.
Beach St Co.
The Kiosk Cafe had a restaurant licence at the time Canford were engaged. The main inhibiting factor was that the client did not have toilets in their leased area. Further, the Kiosk Cafe is on Crown Reserve Land. This meant any physical changes and alterations had to come with very good reasoning and justification, and get approval granted by both the City of Fremantle, and the State Government.
The plan for Beach St Co. was to trade under a tavern restricted licence, and to extend the size of the venue to include alfresco dining. This meant that (a) toilet facilities and (b) an alfresco area would need to be designed and built on Crown Land. Further, going from a restaurant licence to a licensed tavern required a comprehensive Change of Use application before the process of expanding and building onto Crown Reserve Land could begin.
Beach St Co.
Canford worked with Council and State Government at length to have the Change of Use application approved. This meant extensive lease renegotiations to allow the new tavern land use, and expansion of the client’s leased area. This process took just over a year before all the right approvals were in place.
During this time, Canford also worked swiftly to draft and lodge a tavern restricted liquor licence application. We put together succinct Public Interest Submissions and gathered relevant Objective Evidence. The application was lodged in August 2018, and was conditionally granted in December 2018.
From this point of approval, the building works began. This period of time was met with many frustrations due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. The lockdown unfortunately pushed all timelines back for opening – a situation that was completely out of everyone’s hands. It is not hard to recognise the difficulty our client faced in having to halt works multiple times throughout 2020 and 2021 due to the initial lockdowns, and the subsequent snap lockdowns.
Beach St Co.
However, it is a testament to Stefano that he found a way to persevere and move forward. Canford assisted in the coordination of all approvals and submissions to Council toward the end of this build process – aiding Stefano in putting the final pieces of Beach St Co. together.
Last week, Beach St Co. had it’s soft opening. Now, as of July 2021 – you can take the scenic route along Beach Street, and stop in at Beach St Co. for a Gourmet wood fired pizza, and a cold beer.
Working with Stefano on this project was a 3 year process. The ups and downs of taking the Kiosk and transforming it into what it is today, is why we love the work we do. We wish Stefano the best of luck with Beach St Co. and we’re proud to have been of assistance.