For Perth’s ‘Midas touch’ developer, success is in the details

“It’s worth more, and the social capital of that little village is richer culturally. It’s an ‘everyone’s a winner’ type attitude.”

The man behind the revival of Perth’s CBD thinks in centuries, not development cycles, resuscitating forgotten sites and others in their orbit.

“I’ve always seen property as a long game,” Fini says, as he pours himself tea in a building his company holds the keys to for the next 89 years.

In Western Australian business circles, Fini is considered to have something of a Midas touch, taking on projects others won’t and bringing new life to historic pockets of a city flush with mining cash.

Between his privately owned family company, Fini Group, developer Human Urban, FJM Property and hospitality collective Made by HAND, Fini has residential, commercial and hospitality projects spanning 280 kilometres of WA’s southwestern corner.

His signature project is Perth’s Point Zero. The three interconnected 1870s Victorian State Buildings served as the Treasury office, a police court, and a post office before falling vacant for almost two decades until Fini led a $100 million, eight-year restoration.

Ten years on, the restaurants, wine bars, luxury COMO The Treasury hotel, and exclusive private members’ club Mello House have made the piazza bisecting the Supreme Courts the unofficial headquarters of Perth’s business and political class.

Fini remembers seeing the buildings for the first time 60 years ago as a child in the back seat of his parents’ car.

“There were tonnes of heritage buildings in Perth, and they were all gone in my lifetime. It was always potentially the best collection left,” he says.

“I treat it as a public building still, even though I’d make more money locking the doors and turning it into an office building full of lawyers. It has a social, cultural job to do.”

Fini embarked on his first Fremantle project at 25 and has helped transform the historic port city, from the Little Creatures brewery to popular Italian restaurant The Roma’s rebirth as Vin Populi.

He has half a dozen projects under way, including an Italian-inspired hotel in the West End and the 1920s Elders Woolstores being turned into boutique apartments plus hospitality and retail.

It’s a similar story 23 kilometres north-west in the inner-city suburb of Leederville, which suffered an identity crisis after being sliced in half by a freeway in the 1970s.

“We kind of fixed it from the day it was dead, when it was almost empty,” Fini says.

He restored the 1890s Leederville Hotel, redeveloped construction boss Dale Alcock’s ABN Group headquarters and transformed the laneway into a food precinct.

His company is embarking on a $300 million high-rise redevelopment to inject housing and entertainment, one of the largest among its $2 billion worth of projects under way alongside the $233 million Perth Film Studios.

Fini’s approach is aided by his ability to ride out economic cycles his peers cannot, coupled with a focus on variables within his control such as timing, delivery and industry relationships spanning decades.

Not all of Fini’s developments have been welcomed with open arms.

His plans to build a $280 million, 41-hectare seaside village in the state’s south-west have faced staunch community opposition over the scale and impact on the pristine coastline.

“He has an incredible eye for detail,” says Clarity Communications co-founder Anthony Hasluck, Fini’s media minder of almost a decade.

“Right down to the number of yolks in the pasta,” adds former PwC Perth managing partner-turned-Fini family adviser Michelle Tremain.

Fini attributes the success of his projects to meticulous planning, including marathon review sessions with architects and external consultants before taking their plans to authorities.

Fini studied commerce and interior design before joining the company his father, Tony, established in 1956 after migrating from southern Italy.

Now two of Fini’s sons, Jamie and Alessio, are involved in the business, the third works in development on the east coast and one of his two daughters is an architect. His five-year-old grandson wants to be a builder, too.

Fini says the time has come to make the transition “from driving to coaching”, but insists there is no succession plan, saying it wasn’t a model he subscribed to, implying blood wouldn’t be a prerequisite.

“It’s up to whoever wants to do something. It’s my job to give them enough stimulation to see if they want to – be it [Human Urban executives] Kyle [Jeavons], Rowan [Clarke], Jamie [Fini], any child, or any staff member,” he said.

“It’s not like you can keep developing until the grave; some do, but that’s not for me – I’ve picked the day. I’m 65, and I’m moving from driving to coaching-type scenarios and making sure there’s a good legacy for everyone else to grow.”

When the 2016 West Australian of the Year isn’t surfing, hiking, or doing the travelling he derives much inspiration from, he is embedded in Perth’s arts scene, philanthropic work and his role on the University of Western Australia’s Business School board.

Fini views Western Australia as the land of opportunity, from serving as a gateway to Asia and economic diversification efforts to its role in the trilateral AUKUS security pact, but says Perth still has a lot of growing to do.

The sprawling city may be covered with his fingerprints, but Fini isn’t self-concerned when it comes to his legacy.