The fire station in the middle of Justin Hemmes’ expanding Byron Bay empire

From the outside, the beach shacks don’t look like much – two tin-topped cottages and a shed wrap around Kingsley Street in the middle of Byron Bay.

Built in 1910 and largely unchanged since, one has a wood-fired stove. The other has rust cascading down the roof.

But in November last year, they were acquired together for $3.6 million by a wealthy and ambitious owner.

The title deeds list the buyer as KJP Services Limited. The company is named after the initials of its owner: Kieren James Parker.

Parker, a managing partner at Addisons law firm in Sydney, was not buying the properties as a weekend getaway for his family in Byron Bay. He was buying them for his client, Justin Hemmes, the Merivale billionaire who has used Parker to help grow his Australian property portfolio past an estimated $3 billion.

Hemmes has spent the past four years investing $60 million in property in Byron Bay, including the former backpacker bar Cheeky Monkeys, as well as two retail stores and a restaurant on Jonson Street, which he is combining into Byron’s largest venue.

The Byron beach shacks next door were formally transferred by Parker to Hemmes Property Pty Ltd in February for $1. Hemmes has now gained almost total control over the string of properties in the middle of the North Coast holiday town.

There’s only one institution left standing in the centre of it all: the Byron Bay fire station.

Now it’s being relocated.

The timing of Hemmes’ shack purchase was fortuitous. In June last year, the NSW government announced it was investing $8 million in the Byron Bay fire station.

The government said it would replace a facility that is almost 50 years old and “provide our firefighters with modern amenities to better serve the community”.

There was no mention of relocating the fire station.

On November 25 last year, KJP Services Limited bought the Kingsley Street shacks next to the fire station on behalf of Hemmes, giving him ownership of all the properties surrounding the fire station.

Then, on December 3 last year, the NSW government announced that it would move the fire station a kilometre away to a new $28 million emergency services precinct on an estate controlled by the Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council.

In exchange for the Sandhills Estate, the Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council will now have control over the old Byron Bay fire station, clearing the way for them to rent or sell the Crown land to the highest bidder.

A Crown Lands spokesperson said once ownership of the fire station is transferred to the land council by December next year, any decisions regarding its use or sale will be a matter for them.

Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Leweena Williams did not respond to requests for comment about whether Hemmes or Merivale had approached her or the council about the fire station.

Fire and Rescue NSW said the agreement would allow fire crews to continue operating from the current station until the new one is built.

Merivale said it had not spoken to the land council about the site and had no knowledge of plans to move the fire station before they were publicly announced.

A spokesperson said the company planned to use the Kingsley Street shacks for “existing accommodation”.

The shacks bring Hemmes’ Byron empire even closer to the doorstep of the local primary school, which is already fiercely opposed to Merivale’s current plans, arguing kindergarten students will be in classrooms less than 70 metres from where Merivale wants to serve up to 545 customers from 10am until 2am.

The proposal for a Totti’s, Jimmy’s Falafel and a 179-person courtyard and bar has fuelled fears Merivale patrons will tumble out of the venues to urinate on school gates and drive drunk through school pick-up zones.

Following community backlash to its initial development application, Merivale revised its submission by removing the word “bar” and replacing it with a “single acoustically treated lounge zone”.

The company insists it wants to create a family-friendly restaurant that will be able to serve food and drinks until 2am.

But it has done little to convince parents.

“Cosmetic rebranding does not change the reality of the proposal,” Byron Bay Public School P&C president Laura Cima wrote to the council on behalf of the P&C in November.

“Every concern raised in our October submission remains unaddressed and, in several critical respects, has worsened.

“In its current form, the Merivale proposal for a massive venue enabling drinking without eating across the day and night, within 70 metres of a large public school, is in our view clearly inappropriate overdevelopment which threatens the safety and educational wellbeing of the children of Byron Bay Public School, potentially for generations to come.”

Merivale accused parents of displaying “a gross misunderstanding of the concept and documentation which has been lodged with council”.

“The site now and for many years prior to Merivale’s acquisition has held two liquor licences,” a spokesperson said. “There is no application or intention to amend any permitted use or other conditions of the existing liquor licences.”

The P&C wants councillors to restrict the venue to being a restaurant only, limit opening hours to between 7am and 10pm, provide parking and reduce patron numbers significantly.

The P&C said the NSW Department of Education had also expressed serious concerns about the nature of this proposed development in a letter to the Byron Shire Council general manager at the beginning of November.

Merivale was fined last month for beginning construction work on the site without approval. It is also facing an ongoing investigation from the Fair Work Ombudsman over claims it underpaid staff and has faced allegations that it ignored sexual harassment while serving VIPs with political and criminal links.

When the Byron Merivale site is completed, it will sit at the top of a proposed special entertainment precinct that will allow for expanded trading hours. Byron Shire Council voted last week to push ahead with the next stage of plans for the special entertainment precinct to revitalise its struggling economy, despite fears in the community that it will transform Byron into a party hub.

Byron Chamber of Commerce president Matt Williamson told the council that residents should accept that Byron was no longer a sleepy coastal town.

“We are a town that upwards of two million people come and visit us, and if you look at the developments that are happening in town at the moment, many more people will come in the future,” Byron Shire News reported him telling the meeting.

Meddles Bekirofski, the owner of another property next to the Merivale redevelopment, said he was opposed to the special entertainment precinct.

“By all means, reduce the red tape for festivals and events. Eliminate the five-kilometre rule for [registered] clubs. And reduce the red tape for outdoor dining. But for the sake of your own community, please don’t relax licensing regulations, trading hours or venue noise restrictions,” he said.

“If you want a vibrant town centre, there are other ways to go about it.”

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