7 minute read
DESIGN & BUILD: STORIES, PERTH
A striking new landmark
Perth’s Yagan Square precinct has undergone a huge transformation, with Nokturnl revealing a five-floor drinking and dining destination.
LOCATED IN the heart of Perth’s CBD, the Yagan Square precinct first opened in 2018, housing an elevated food court named Market Hall. Despite a $100m investment by the Western Australian Government, the closed-in design and onset of Covid caused many vendors to close shop.
In late 2021, the Government ran a tender process to reinvigorate Yagan Square, and although Nokturnl hadn’t been looking for a new location, the hospitality group won.
Almost three years later, a complete overhaul has turned the site into a five- floor hospitality destination, revitalising the precinct and inviting more foot traffic.
While Stories is Nokturnl’s first leasehold operation, the tender proposed several changes that would allow the group to transform the space significantly.
Nokturnl co-founder and director Ross Drennan says: “Our proposal was to use a significant bit of the outdoor space, and to have permission to basically bash a big hole in the building to open it up more, because people can too easily walk past this place.”
As development progressed, concerned about an existing rooftop playground plagued with antisocial behavior, the group proposed to build two additional levels, and later began exploring other vacant tenancies lining the building.
“As much as we’d already taken on more than we could chew, we didn’t like the fact that there was vacancy around us and uncertainty of what may move in there,” added Drennan.
“One of the problems with Market Hall was the 15 different businesses competing with each other, whereas we could create different restaurants offering different cuisine, rather than a multitude of the same offering.”
Two additional levels were added by Nokturnl
Building a hospitality haven
Covering over 4000 sqm with a capacity of 5000 across internal and external areas, Stories is Nokturnl’s most ambitious project to date, comprising nine bars and three restaurants.
“It went from being something we thought we could put a couple of million dollars into, mainly letting the landlord’s contribution pay for it, into something we put over $10m of our own money into,” says Drennan.
“It was a difficult build, building above trainlines. There were massive engineering issues we had to overcome, with special foundations to transfer load away from train tunnels.
“If you wanted to add a big tree upstairs, you had to lose weight elsewhere, so you didn’t have too much weight on the train tunnels. We learned a lot while doing this.”
About a month out we became nervous because we had gone all in here, but as a crazy publican you tend to have these gut feelings. Most people in the industry take massive risks opening anything, and we’ve been very lucky.
Ross Drennan, Nokturnl
For design and construction, Nokturnl partnered with MJA Studio and Builden Construction, which it has used for its projects prior.
“All our projects have been built very fast because we’ve had a cost-plus agreement with no architects involved in the build, so decisions can be made quickly. I think we get good bang for our buck by doing it like that,” says Drennan.
Split between three spaces, Stories houses Front Yard, Pourhouse and Rooftop. Ideal for families and larger groups, Front Yard boasts the CBD’s largest beer garden, while Pourhouse is the public bar offer of the venue, featuring hidden speakeasy bar Fat Controller.
Drennan says: “Front Yard was the crux of us getting into the whole thing, it was the outdoor space. We’re in the middle of the CBD, so having such a large outdoor beer garden is quite unique, land is such a premium in the CBD.
“We also put a small playground there, which is only one of two in the CBD, and allows us to cater to families.”
The Pourhouse is Stories’ indoor space, offering protection from the weather, a large tap bank and live music, all of which cater to a mature demographic.
The Rooftop, covering the top two floors, has become Stories’ party hub, with 360-degree skyline views, vibrant cocktails and DJs playing into the early hours.
“The first level is appealing to the 25-45 age group. On the top floor, we have a big dance floor and balcony area which attracts 18- to 24-yearolds. It’s probably better than our existing places, how it has split those crowds, and each of those areas is at capacity on the weekend,” says Drennan.
A diversified offering
Much like Nokturnl’s other venues, food and beverage and entertainment make up a significant part of the offering.
Live music has always had its place in hospitality venues, and with many of Perth’s well-established live music venues closing in recent years, Nokturnl hopes to revitalise this.
Sitting directly opposite the new Edith Cowan University, which will house the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Nokturnl hopes to showcase local talent.
While the operator has fully funded the infrastructure, it hopes to attract a grant that will support local musicians to play and make entertainment sustainable long term.
“We saw a great opportunity to collaborate with the University and WAAPA, and give those students the opportunity to come and play in a public performance area, as well as building on that live music scene in the city again,” Drennan stated.
Separate to the former Market Hall space are three restaurants in the external grounds of Stories: Alba, a modern Italian restaurant; Karla, an Asian restaurant with dishes cooked over flams and coal; and Ugly Baby, a casual Middle Eastern restaurant.
Joining Karla from the Lucas Group in Melbourne, Thai-born head chef Ben Pienprasop and exec chef Sundoo Kim focus on fresh, locally sourced produce and native Australian ingredients.
“We always knew Karla was going to be great. We’ve got an amazing husband and wife head chef team, who were on one of the opening teams at Chin Chin back in the day. They’re very talented, and every dish they put in front of us was just great,” says Drennan.
Situated in one of the failed former restaurant shells, Alba underwent a significant transformation, downsizing the large central bar to increase capacity.
“To make sure we had a good offering, we searched over in the East again to find a great chef. We came across a restaurant in Sydney called Matteo Downton and secured the former head chef, and started to get excited about Italian, which we hadn’t done before.
“He’s very passionate, he’s making handmade pasta and trialling new dishes every week, letting guests try different things.”
Nokturnl intended Ugly Baby to be a completely different concept to its other dining destinations, adopting the term “fun dining” as a contrast to its high-end experiences.
“It’s a fun atmosphere, casual, high energy, a little bit tongue in cheek. Calling it Ugly Baby – I guess Yagan Square started off being our ugly baby and we had to turn it around.”
Each of the restaurants has been incredibly popular, reaching full capacity every weekend, with a similar triumph seen across the other venue components.
Smack bang in the middle of the city, the site is well located as far as public transport and footfall go, and this is reflected in the number of patrons pouring through the doors.
“About a month out we became nervous because we had gone all in here, but as a crazy publican you tend to have these gut feelings. Most people in the industry take massive risks opening anything, and we’ve been very lucky.”
While there is room for improvement for trade early in the week, Drennan says weekends are pumping.
“It’s probably the biggest pub by quite a margin in Western Australia, with just over 300 staff now; we must be getting 15,000 to 20,000 people through each week.”
