Preston Market 'Saved' From Redevelopment as Stallholders' Leases Renewed

The years-long battle over a proposed redevelopment of Melbourne’s 53-year-old Preston Market has come to an end after its owners announced stallholders would be offered five-year leases.

Traders were told in May their leases would not be renewed beyond January when the billionaire private developers who own the site, Salta Properties, claimed a new planning scheme amendment proposed by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny in an effort to protect Preston Market would no longer make it viable.

But the government’s planning protections were confirmed in August.

Stallholders waited to find out what their landlords would do with their leases and, on Tuesday, they received a letter from Salta Properties director Sam Tarascio that confirmed five-year renewals would be offered, after years of uncertainty.

But the letter also suggested their rents were set to increase.

“At all times during this process, the joint owners sought to ensure the future of the Preston Market and protect your businesses by seeking permission to replace a majority of the old market buildings with new, state-of-the-art buildings that would secure the future of the market for the next 50 years,” the letter read.

“As with the economy generally, the operating costs of the market are escalating at a rapid rate. This requires exhaustive and ongoing management.

“A key cost that has escalated over the past five years has been insurance and government taxes. This is an unavoidable cost, and one that now with less ability to reconfigure the market buildings as needed, we need to work through how best to resolve.”

The Save Preston Market action group has campaigned since 2021 to protect the market from private development.

They have argued the site is integral to the community who rely on it for fresh and affordable food, as well as income for the dozens and families who trade there.

On Tuesday they said on social media the market had been "saved", which was news they'd been "waiting for".

They said they were still working to gain a further understanding of what the next five years – and beyond – would hold but for now they were “obviously beyond relieved and excited to receive and share this news”.

Salta Properties will likely start on a new redesign concept with State Government protections, but for now, Preston Market is here to stay.

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Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.