2011. 30 March. Independent: "A long-term and respected local business identity (James Delahunty) wants Fortitude Valley rid of the eyesore Waltons building – either cleaned up or preferably redeveloped – and support for his campaign is spreading." See
Independent article
2011. 12 May.
4BC: Fortitude Valley struggling.
Peter Dick and Mary Collier interview David Hinchliffe about how the area can improve. "DH: There is so much heritage in those buildings, Council is saying you've got to keep those buildings, and some of the owners are sitting on those buildings hoping that one day there'll be another council that says you can demolish them all."
2011. 12 May. Brisbanetimes.com.au publishes an article on
how to fix the valley mall
but many comments call for cleaning the Waltons building. David Hinchliffe of the city council responds: "Council does NOT have the power to make the owner of the Walton's building renovate or re-develop. Council's powers in relation to the outward appearance of buildings are limited to buildings that front the malls. I've suggested that we seek powers from the State to allow Council to have such a power outside the malls." John Fraser of Kedron responds: "The BCC has more than enough powers to issue Show Cause Notices on the Waltons building."
2011. 14 June. City News publishes an article:
BRISBANE'S Fortitude Valley is descending into filth
. "Cr [David] Hinchliffe cited the arcade from the Valley Metro train station and across the air-bridge to McWhirters as a private property area in a constant state of filth and disrepair. "Broken glass, bodily fluids, litter, rotting foods, you name it, it's there," he said."
2011. 4 July. The Independent publishes an article about
the correspondence between Jack Moc and Greg Scroope.
Mr Scroope said he had met 10 days earlier with property owner Jack Moc who “owns the building that holds Cafe One and who has the administrative and management rights for the area between the air bridge linking McWhirter’s through to the Valley Metro Shopping Centre”.
David Hinchliffe talks about
"asking council for a ruling on whether council does have the power to make property owners in the Valley clean up filthy premises."
2011. 7 July.
David Hinchliffe speaks to The Independent
again: "There are some property owners who are simply holding the Valley back. If properties look unloved as many properties in the Valley do, then it sends the wrong message to everyone else in that community."
2011. 20 July. The Independent addresses Jack Moc on the front page asking him to "Come Clean" about the state of the walkway from the Valley Metro to Wickham Street. The editor offers him space in the 3 August issue to respond.
2011. 7 September. The Courier-Mail publishes
a story about Grace Grace
, the Member for Brisbane Central, describing some buildings of Fortitude Valley as "derelict and filthy". Pictures of the Waltons building feature prominently in both the online and paper versions. The
Hansard transcript
[dead link]
is available on the Queensland Parliament website. "The Brisbane City Council is taking no action on derelict and filthy buildings and public spaces, giving visitors to the Valley a very bad first impression, and as we know first impressions often last." Ruby Velour writes an
open letter to the BCC about Fortitude Valley:
"[One is] greeted with the disgusting mess that is the walkway between McWhirters building and the Metro food court. I have literally never seen it clean. There are inches of dust and grime coating old rubbish and fast food containers. I once saw a pie that has been smeared into the wall last about a month before it was cleaned (or most likely, fell off on its own accord). Considering Fortitude Valley station is the 3rd busiest in Queensland, this is appalling. ... On one side of [Brunswick] street you have dank old cheap shops that you can smell from a mile off and haven’t been updated since the building used to be a Walton’s, facing $1 peepshows, strip joints, nightclubs and the dingy Chopstix Arcade."
2011. 8 September. Barbara May Hosking of Mt Gravatt
writes to the Courier-Mail
[dead link]
: "The once popular Waltons department store is the worst example of neglect. I am passionately against such neglect and feel that legal action should be taken against the council and owners/developers for allowing eyesores to continue."
2011. 10 September. Richard Bean of Toowong
writes to the Courier-Mail
[dead link]
: "THE former Waltons building in Fortitude Valley has been largely empty since 1988. This building and surrounding areas certainly live up to the description of derelict and filthy."
2011. 14 September. The Independent publishes a front page story:
"Pressure now mounting on Valley eyesores"
. David Hinchliffe suggests an open letter to Premier Anna Bligh and Lord Mayor Graham Quirk "asking that both sides send their top decision-makers and legal brains down to the Valley to meet on site with business and property owners and decide once and for all who has the power and who has the will to use it!"
2011. 28 September.
The Independent:
"Local council candidate Paul Crowther has called on the City Council to stop the "buck passing" and get on with cleaning up the Valley. He says his call follows advice received from the State Director-General of Local Government. In a letter from Jack Noye, Queensland Government Director General of Local Government and Planning to Colin Jensen CEO of Brisbane City Council, Mr Jensen says the BCC has the power to clean up the Valley under the Building Act 1975, where the council reasonably believes structures are dilapidated or filthy. ... Mr Crowther points to the abandoned, filthy and dilapidated Waltons building as a prime candidate for the Lord Mayor to immediately issue enforcement notices and direct the building owner to undertake cleaning and maintenance work." ....
Robin Maini, Winning Appliances Queensland:
"It is refreshing to see the urgent call to action to refurbish dilapidated buildings. ... Winning Appliances and Bathrooms ... have transformed [the whole block between Alfred and St Paul's Terrace]. ... I am personally happy to assist in the effort to get the message across to owners and businesses alike if you are forming a committee regarding the issue."
2011. 29 September.
City News:
"THE State Government has suggested Brisbane City Council write a new local law to force substandard Fortitude Valley landlords to clean up their act. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said while he was open to the idea, State Government processes to approve a local law usually took over a year. Cr Quirk said the former Waltons site on Brunswick St was a concern but contact with the owners, who lived overseas, was difficult. In a statement to City News, Cr Quirk said he was meeting with Waltons: ‘‘I am determined to pull every lever available to me to solve this problem but we can’t just wash our hands of the issue for 12 months while we wait for the State to approve a local law.’’"
2011. 5 October.
Lord Mayor declares war on rundown buildings
in Fortitude Valley. "Lord Mayor Graham Quirk yesterday named the rundown Waltons Store as one of city's biggest problems as Fortitude Valley tries to recapture its strengths. "There has been a 20-year fight going on with a couple of the landowners in Fortitude Valley and I am about to resurrect those fights," he said." The article uses information from this site and Brisbane Times has approached Nancy Lee, the sole director of Mount Cathay Pty Ltd, for comment. Brisbane City Council inspectors visited the building on 4 and 5 October.
2011. 5 October.
4BC: Valley, one big mess?
Peter Dick and Mary Collier (Fortitude Valley resident) interview Fortitude Valley resident and Queensland MP Grace Grace about the Valley. "PD: The Lord Mayor has named the run-down Waltons store as one of the city's biggest problems. ... Why have we got such prime inner city real estate just sitting there empty, there's arcades there, nobody's occupied the stores ... GG: The escalators in Wickham Street haven't worked for some time - City Council should step in. ... The State Government spent $32 million on a new train station there at Fortitude Valley and yet you go out of the Metro plaza and you come over the overpass and you enter into a quite dilapidated terrible area which is privately owned and needs upgrading ... we've had correspondence with the owner... MC (interjecting): Who does own it can I just ask? GG: Look, uh, it's a businesspeople (sic), I won't give the name on the radio I don't think it's fair to them, but it is privately owned.". Afterward: "MC: We talk about bipartisanship but there was a lot of attacking of the Council going on there. ... PD: It's Brisbane's biggest embarrassment. Quarter past seven ..."
Direct link to MP3 of interview.
2011. 18 October.
Brisbane City Council minutes of 4359 meeting:
Councillor David McLachlan, Chair of the Field Services Committee: "Madam Chairman, the Council has done what it can to bring Overells Lane up to scratch and the job of maintaining it up to an acceptable standard is now much easier. The challenge we face in a location like this is to get other property owners to do the right thing as well. Overells Lane runs down into a car park for QR staff located at the back of the Fortitude Valley railway station. It's far from a salubrious location and as it's not Council property, Council staff are not able to undertake the cleanup necessary to bring it up to an acceptable standard. But all that can be done to encourage the surrounding property owners to do better to attend to the amenity issues of their properties is being done."
2011. 20 October. Courier-Mail: City Hall acts on Valley rot. THE owners of a Fortitude Valley building at the centre of a political stoush have been issued with a list of 65 defects City Hall wants fixed. The list was forwarded to the owners of the Walton's building, at the corner of Brunswick and Wickham streets, by Brisbane City Council and includes everything from dry rot, mould and graffiti to rust and broken windows. Labor councillors, however, say Lord Mayor Graham Quirk is simply acting because their lord mayoral candidate Ray Smith had promised to step in if elected at the March election. "They have no alternative in the face of public outrage about the decay that has occurred in these buildings and the manifest neglect," Central Ward's Cr David Hinchliffe said. Cr Quirk said the issue had been going on for 20 years and it was Cr Hinchliffe who had been slow to act.
2011. 21 October.
Brisbane Times.
"Run down but not out. Two offers have been made to purchase a dilapidated Fortitude Valley building, amid calls to convert the historic structure into a live music venue. Real estate agent Glen Gracie [sic, should be Glenn Gracie] said he had received several offers from clients who wanted to buy the property, which the building's owners, Mount Cathay Pty Ltd, were considering. ... Brisbane City Council this week sent the property owners, Mount Cathay Pty Ltd, a list of 65 urgent repairs it wants to see undertaken. Those repairs included new paint, minor water leak repairs, and the replacement of dry rot and broken pipes. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said he would seek state government approval for a local law to obtain the power to force the owners to fix the building. "I've acted and council officers have prepared a list of building defects that the owners need to fix to ensure it meets a minimum standard of cleanliness that I consider acceptable," he said.
2011. 25 October.
The Independent:
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk is confident that “steely” discussions with the owners of some of Fortitude Valley’s eyesore buildings will bear fruit soon. But he is warning that he’ll force action – with fresh legislation if need be – to make recalcitrant owners bring their buildings up to a suitable standard – both inside and out.
2011. 28 October. Mount Cathay publishes an open letter with some really tortured syntax - pictured here. It refers to another 2002 open letter to Jim Soorley.
Mount Cathay asks for State Government intervention and an enquiry
2011. 16 November.
The Independent:
"Council mute on Walton's deadline. Brisbane City Council has sidestepped questions on how long the owners of the eyesore Walton's building in Fortitude Valley will be given to rectify 65 defects outlined in a show-cause notice issued late last month - or what action council intends to take if such a deadline passes without substantial remedial work being undertaken."
Editorial:
" ... the two main risks to the health and safety of people venturing into the precinct - the shoddy public passageway through the Walton's building from Valley Metro towards Wickham Street, and the often-stalled escalators down to that street, are not covered by the show-cause notice."
2011. 21-23 November. The Brunswick Street facade is repainted.
2011. 1 December. City News: "Run-down buildings under fire. Fortitude Valley's worst eyesores are on the Lord Mayor's hit list, with the run-down Waltons building the first to be targeted. The heritage building's facade has been repainted but Brisbane City Council officers have identified another 55 defects needing repair."
2011. 5 December.
Village News:
"One down. Fifty-five to go. A COAT of paint on the upper facade of the decaying Waltons Building on Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, marks the first step in a campaign by Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to having the property cleaned up. LNP candidate for the council’s Central Ward, Vicki Howard, said the cream paint job signalled the breaking of a deadlock between the council and the owner, Mount Cathay – which had gone on for 20 years."
2011. 6 December.
Brisbane City Council minutes of 4366 meeting:
[dead link]
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk: "Waltons in the Valley, there has been some considerable painting work been undertaken down there. That’s the start of that program; more to be done. I look forward to seeing those ongoing improvements, Waltons in the Valley, along with some other improvements that will occur down there, I am sure, in the weeks ahead."
2011. 8 December.
City News:
"Waltons action at last. Fortitude Valley business owners have praised Brisbane City Council’s intervention in the longrunning Waltons building saga. Last week City News reported the facade of the vacant building had been repainted after Brisbane City Council officers found 55 defects in the derelict Brunswick St site." Quotes follow from Graham Quirk, Geoff Wilson, James Delahunty, Robin Maini and Charlie Apostolos.
2011. 12 December. The walkway through the Waltons building between the Valley Metro and McWhirters is closed.
2011. 13 December (issue of 23-30 November). The Independent: "Quirk welcomes Walton's work. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has welcomed the start of remedial work on the Walton's building in Fortitude Valley several weeks after City Council issued its owners with a demand calling on 65 problem areas to be rectified. Cr Quirk in a media release said the work came after he had "intervened to end the 20-year issue" and followed his "stern talks with representatives for the old Walton's building ... to have the decaying property cleaned up"."
2011. 14 December. A twitter conversation between
Grace Grace
and
Philip De Bella:
"GG: Ridiculous closing the Valley old Walton's walkthrough during Christmas, can't this wait for quiet time? Bad for business, bad for patrons! BCC handling of old Walton's walkway plagued with delay, blame shifting, inaction and bad timing. BCC always had ability to act but why now?" "PD: now now grace you know why now!! Finally we have people prepared to stand up take action! people that don't want to play politics but fix the issues!!" Another
tweet from SteveJWR
suggests television news coverage (no link available).
2011. 14 December.
Brisbane Times:
"Brisbane City Council will soon have the ability to force property owners to maintain and repair old buildings. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk last night said his decision to draft a local law to give Brisbane the ability to control property owners was prompted by a 20-year tussle to protect the old Walton's Building in Fortitude Valley. ... A spokesman for Cr Quirk said Mount Cathay had done a good job since being asked to repair the property. Recently they angered local traders by closing off access through a walkway through to the Fortitude Valley train station from Wickham Street. Last night, local councillor David Hinchliffe praised the council's decision to go ahead and write its own protection as a local law."
2011. 14 December.
Terri Begley on 612 ABC
interviews Graham Quirk about the proposed new laws, which are predicted to be in effect within 18 months.
2011. 15 December. City News: "Laws give council power over amenity. Brisbane City Council will soon have the power to force building owners to maintain rundown properties. ... On Monday the Mount Cathay-owned walkway connecting McWhirters shopping complex and the station was closed for maintenance, without notice to adjoining businesses." The article discusses the impact the closure is having on nearby businesses which rely on walk-through traffic.
2011. 15 December.
City News:
"Closed walkway hits valley business. Fortitude Valley businesses fear they will be forced to shut their doors after a public walkway was closed without notice on Monday. ALP council candidate (Central) Paul Crowther said about 80 business people attended a public meeting this morning calling on council to reopen the Mount Cathay-owned walkway which connects McWhirters shopping complex and the Fortitude Valley train station. The Waltons building on Wickham St has been the subject of a 20-year between the building's owners, Mt Cathay Pty Ltd and council over its poor state."
2011. 15 December. Courier-Mail. "Mayor seeks new laws to pretty up the Valley. EYESORE buildings will have to be prettied up under new local laws being sought by Brisbane's Lord Mayor. Graham Quirk will ask the State Government to pass laws giving council the power to order private owners of derelict structures in Fortitude Valley to make repairs. Cr Quirk said the laws would apply to the owners of all Valley buildings, whether heritage-listed or not."
2011. 16 December.
Bridge Magazine
[dead link]
publishes an article about the building, saying that the owners are just waiting for price appreciation.
2011. 17 December.
Courier Mail.
"Grate Wall. There is a major business spat under way in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley which has seen two influential Chinese (sic - Nancy and Joyce Lee were born in Australia and Moc is a Vietnamese name) families pitched against one another and a sort of Great Wall erected as a result. The dispute centres around an important walkway up the often-broken escalator from Wickham St through to the Valley train station. In the one corner are the owners of the run-down Walton building, the Lee family, while in the other corner is Jack Moc, who owns the Happy Valley development. Just over a week out from Christmas Walton managers erected a large wall 20m across that prevents commuters and customers walking through to the Valley train station. Word is the Lord Mayor himself has been called in to try to sort out the mess."
2011. 22 December.
Brisbane Times:
"Five small businesses will close in Fortitude Valley's McWhirters Centre, despite Christmas trading, if the walkway over Wickham Street does not open as planned this morning. ... Talks over the past week between lawyers for three parties have late this afternoon [21 December] reached a financial agreement to re-open the walkway. The parties are Valley Metro owners Bovis Lend Lease, Mount Cathay and Happy Valley, owners of the building next to Wickham Street. They will now each contribute money to the maintenance of the walkway."
4BC Breakfast tweets:
"Has the overhead walkway to McWhirters in the Valley reopened to foot traffic? We'll get the latest from the scene, very soon"
