Footscray Angling Club: Yarraville building casting net for tenant

The real estate agent who bought and revamped the former Footscray Angling Club is looking to lease out the quirky Yarraville building after renovating it. See the transformation.

The former Footscray Angling Club – which hosted members including Joy Stewart, John Kalkbrenner Snr, Lucky Pavlidis, John Kalkbrenner Jnr and Bill Richards – has been renovated and is now seeking a tenant. Picture: Tim Carrafa

The former Footscray Angling Club is fishing for tenants, after hitting the rental market with a sleek new look.

Local real estate agent Craig Stephens snapped up the quirky Yarraville building at 70 Pentland Pde for $725,000 in October.

The Jas Stephens executive chairman went on to renovate the historic property and has now listed it for rent asking $750 per week.

RELATED: Footscray Angling Club reels in buyer after the two that got away

Footscray Angling Club’s Yarraville headquarters still casting net for buyer

Call for ban on tenant evictions in Victoria amid coronavirus crisis

The property has been freshly painted and had its floorboards polished.

A tenant can secure the space for $750 per week.

“I polished the floorboards, added a coat of paint and airconditioning, and tidied it up,” Mr Stephens said.

“I loved the space — it was always an aspiration to buy a property like this, (with) a bit of history being the old anglers’ club and also a butcher.

“The old concrete floor is still there from when it was a butcher.”

The red-brick building also still bares a sign labelling it the “Footscray and District Angling Club”.

The property could suit as a work-from-home residence or a base for creative businesses.

The property housed the fishing club for 15 years.

Mr Stephens said the one-bedroom property would be perfect for a tenant who wanted to set up a home office or someone seeking a base for a creative business, like a graphic design or photography studio.

The occupant will need to lodge a $3259 bond.

The building’s sale to Mr Stephens was anything but smooth sailing, coming after the property passed in at auction on a $750,000 vendor bid in July and after two subject-to-finance offers of $750,000 fell through.

The facade still bares the ‘Footscray and District Angling Club’ sign.

The interior before the building’s sale and revamp.

The fishing club paid about $3000 worth of “minor solicitor fees” for the building about 15 years ago, in a transfer from the defunct Yarraville Angling Club, and then spent a further $50,000 installing a new floor, improving the roof and building a storeroom.

Club president Lucky Pavlidis said members had met there monthly to discuss “where we’ve been fishing, what fish we’ve caught, what bait and lures we’ve used, and club business”.

But with numbers dwindling from a peak of about 100 around the time of its 1900 founding to just 15 odd, the club had decided to move to a space where it could keep its three boats that was closer to the water.

MORE: George Calombaris opts not to sell Toorak mansion

Rocker sells Black Rock pad after more than 2000 days

Shane Warne lists Brighton home with basement bar

Originally published as Footscray Angling Club: Yarraville building casting net for tenant