TREMAIN'S Mill owner Stephen Birrell is considering increasing the amount of office space on the site in order to give the area a "heartbeat" during the day.
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Mr Birrell is getting ready for the official opening of the mill's first stage of development on Friday, but is already looking ahead to further stages.
Next on the agenda is the top floor of the Victoria Stores building, where Mr Birrell will build four short-stay luxury heritage apartments, and the next phase, he said, will probably be the mill building itself.
"What we're hopeful of is that the precinct can have a bit of a heartbeat during the day, so we were going to do more apartments there, but we're thinking we might do some professional offices, so that we've got people coming and going all the time," he said.
"So the ground floor is already dedicated to the milling museum [the planned Australian Milling Museum], but the three floors above, we're thinking we might do professional offices.
"We've had quite a deal of interest in that already.
"We're giving up a fair bit of income [by not building the apartments], but we think it might actually help the precinct - just give it a bit of soul."
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Member for Bathurst Paul Toole announced on Thursday that the Tremain's Mill precinct would receive a Regional Tourism - Destination NSW grant of $150,000 - bringing the NSW Government's total funding assistance for the site to $350,000.
The $150,000 grant will be used for fixtures and fittings for the Victoria Stores heritage apartments.
Mr Birrell said tradesmen were now at work on the apartments, which are due to be ready for the Bathurst 1000 race week in October.
And they have to be: he said one of the Bathurst 1000 race teams will be using the newly-built accommodation.
Mr Toole said the Tremain's precinct is starting to take shape.
"It's great to be able to support the crucial role played by Steve Birrell and his team on their efforts to bring our local heritage to life," he said.
"The Tremain's Mill precinct continues to move ahead in leaps and bounds and I am sure that in years to come it will become a great tourist attraction."
