MICHAEL Shipsides never fully realised the huge level of community support that existed for his eight-year-old riverfront business.
It took the prospect of his Shippy’s Cafe being moved inside the Powerhouse building, away from its popular location on Hugh King Drive, for the extent of that support to emerge.
Shortly after the draft plan for the $6 million makeover of the Powerhouse precinct was put out for community consultation last month, he started a petition against the move.
No fewer than 780 people signed it – and dozens more locals sent their support to Mr Shipsides on his social media accounts.
“The response was amazing and very humbling,” he said.
“We knew we had a bit of a following – but just the passion from the locals has blown me away.
“I couldn’t be more thankful to the community, all the councillors and the council staff, who have listened and worked closely with me on the revised plan.”
Fast forward a few weeks and people power has prevailed in the final, adopted plan for the Powerhouse precinct redevelopment.
And while it’s not a done deal yet, his business could move to an even better location in the precinct, alongside the new village green.
“The plan’s really good. It has the open space that everybody wanted,” Mr Shipsides said on Thursday.
“We’ve been given the option of staying or moving – and hopefully we can move across to where we can give our customers an even better view of the river.
“We’ve still got to work through that process with council. It’s not done and dusted by any stretch of the imagination.”
Mr Shipsides’ lease with the council runs out in 2024. However, for any move in the precinct, it would have to be “like-for-like”.
The new commercial food-and-beverage structure is going to be far from a caravan setup, which means Mr Shipsides will have to go through an expressions-of-interest process to become the site’s anchor food tenant.
But Mr Shipsides is confident he has the “runs on the board” and will have the support to be part of the next chapter in the long life of the Powerhouse precinct.
“The redevelopment is exciting for everyone,” he said.
“I can just see the young mums with their kids and friends happily chatting away sitting in the village green.
“Hopefully our business will be next to the village green and we can keep growing with the riverfront.”
