More Wavepool Details? Sure, Why Not.

The surf park boom will not be televised. Instead, it will be brought to you on slow drip — one boring city council meeting and leaked document at a time. Last week the city of Melville, hosts of the planned the URBNSURF Perth project, held a special four-hour council meeting to try and get the wheels grinding forward.

The Perth surf park is part of a larger initiative by the folks at the Wave Park Group, the inventors of the Wavegarden technology. Announced last month, they also have eyes on building similar parks in Melbourne and Sydney, but the notes from the recent council meeting in Perth appear to provide the first concrete steps forward in the development process.

After reviewing the available information, Stab’s initial assessment is that these projects have the potential to move quite expeditiously. If it doesn’t get mired down in environmental debates or bureaucratic red tape, it could be chlorine tubes for everyone in Perth within a couple of years. The following are the key takeaways:

– No fly-by-night project, terms of the initial lease agreement are asking for 30 years with two future 10-year extension options. That’s 50 years of titillating wave pool action!

– The lease agreement is calling for the Melville Bowling Club to vacate its current site by October 2018, which leads us to believe that the Wave Park Group would look to break ground shortly thereafter.

– All this comes at a price. Based on the lease terms, the Wave Park Group will pay the City of Melville $700,000 per year to rent the site. They will also have to chip in an additional $700,000 lease guarantee (as well as a rehabilitation guarantee, the value of which will be determined by an expert at a later date). Plus, the Wave Park Group will “donate” $50,000 towards the creation of a “living stream” on the western edge of the surf park.

– Majority of these plans are contingent on the Wave Park Group sourcing 100 percent of the required financing, as well as obtaining all relevant building permits and required regulatory approvals by the end of February 2019.

– On the plus side, the Wave Park Group is asking for six months of free rent when they do finally open… as savings of $350,000.