By Violet Li
Locals have questioned and condemned Casey Council for evicting most tenants from the old administrative building “so early”, after a locally beloved tenant went into voluntary liquidation this week.
In June last year, most tenants of the old Casey Administration Building moved out after receiving eviction notices from the Casey Council.
Only Peninsula Community Legal Centre and Cranbourne Library stayed.
Casey Council claimed the building will be decommissioned as it is at the end of its life and not financially responsible to retain.
A year after the eviction notices were sent out, the building has still been standing there with no clear sign of demolition or other forms of decommissioning. The legal centre and library are still operating under its roof.
When inquired last week, City of Casey Manager City and Asset Planning Keri New said the Casey Administration Building will be retained until Connected Libraries and Peninsula Community Legal Centre can be relocated to the proposed Cranbourne Hub.
“Due to the poor condition of the remaining areas of the building, there will be no further tenancies, and the building will be decommissioned,” she said.
The proposed Cranbourne Hub will not be built until 2029, according to the Council’s plan.
Casey Residents & Ratepayers Association (CRRA)vice president Anthony Tassone said the Council made a hasty decision evicting most tenants so quickly when the future plans of a Cranbourne community hub weren’t yet finalised.
He spoke of the L’Arte Central Social Enterprise Café, a beloved Cranbourne charity café that was among the evicted tenants and went into voluntary liquidation this week.
Café owner Anthony Cheeseman told Star News last year that the Council caught him off guard by giving him a three-month eviction notice.
He scrambled to find a new location in Cranbourne Park Shopping Centre but had to shut down the venue in November, five months after the relocation.
“Our forced shift from our original location and lack of sales means it just isn’t viable,” a Facebook post writes.
“We will still be operating our Clayton Cafe and Catering Enterprise, so if you need catering, please contact us.”
The Clayton branch has even since supplied Cranbourne and surrounding areas with catering services.
Fast forward to April this year, the remaining Clayton branch went into voluntary liquidation, meaning the entire L’Arte business was gone.
“I think things would have been very different for them if they weren’t evicted and were allowed to continue in their previous premises until 2029 as other tenants there have been allowed to,” Mr Tassone said.
“No one understands why tenants were evicted so early and no one understands why you can continue to have some tenants there if it was previously thought of as not being suitable to house tenants.
“This is haphazard decision-making by the council that has now jeopardised much-loved small businesses unnecessarily with poor logic and rationale, negatively impacted socially disadvantaged people who may have been employed by L’Arte or used their services.
“We’re yet to see any accountability for these poorly thought-out decisions on the run.”
Cranbourne Chamber of Commerce president Ian Wood agreed with Mr Tassone, and he said the Council made a bad decision in evicting some tenants while leaving some tenants there. The chamber used to have its meeting at the old Casey Administration Building. It had to relocate as well last year.
“It doesn’t make sense. Why did the legal service and the library stay when the radio station and the cafe were evicted?”
The voluntary liquidation of the Café this week sent Mr Wood into shock as the chamber lost its catering service.
“They can’t do it anymore because it’s in liquidation,” he said.
“We are looking now for another caterer. We’re going to function next Thursday, so we’re scrambling at the moment. It’s creating a problem.
“If the Café just stayed in that building, the situation would be very different because the café was very popular in that building. There were always people there.”
