It has some of Melbourne's most spectacular bay views, from a free public open space so seldom promoted that many locals don't even know it's there.
But now the owners of the St Kilda Sea Baths want to take that million-dollar view, apply a million-dollar renovation and effectively – according to local activists – privatise it.
The company that has leased the sea baths from the Victorian government since 1999 is the Virgin Islands-based South Pacific St Kilda Pty Ltd.
It has applied to Port Phillip Council to develop the top of the pavilion, with only 'sections' of the rooftop to be maintained as public space.
When it entered the lease 18 years ago the company boasted that the space would always be publicly accessible. A press release from the company in 1999 said: " ... The rooftop terrace, which has one of the best views in Melbourne, will be open to the public".
Alan West has lived in St Kilda for 25 years. Five weeks ago he became aware all the space was public, under the terms of the building's lease from the Victorian government.
"I was blithely unaware of it – and I'm a local activist!" said Mr West, who runs a Facebook page, Friends of St Kilda.
After learning of the application, his group staged a picnic on the rooftop last month. About 50 people attended.
Mr West has now started a petition demanding Port Phillip Council reject the development proposal.
Travis Atkins, whose company Max Group Australasia is employed in Melbourne by South Pacific St Kilda Pty Ltd, said the company was not trying to privatise public space.
He said the proposal, which had the Andrews government's blessing, would instead enhance the rooftop area.
"We want more people to use it," Mr Atkins said. "In saying that, it hasn't been utilised, because there hasn't been anything up there."
South Pacific St Kilda Pty Ltd already has a licence, granted to it in 2015 by Port Phillip Council, to run 104 private events on the rooftop each year.
Mr Atkins said the current application would extend that. "It's not about stopping people coming, it's about bringing people up there, [where] basically it's barren," he said.
He said public seating would be provided without the need to buy a drink, and public toilets. "The more people that come and enjoy the views the better. For people to say we are hiding it away is incorrect."
But another St Kilda local, Krystyna Kynst, said the leaseholder had not done what it had promised and accused it of discouraging use of the space.
"They have not encouraged public access in the past – stairs have been blocked with tables and deliveries – so I wouldn't trust them this time," said Ms Kynst, who has spent hours looking at various approvals granted over the years by the state government and the council.
"The space is fine as it is. There are public toilets, including disability access, and stunning views. It's a relaxing space, not a consuming space"
Port Phillip mayor Bernadene Voss said that the proposal was likely to be considered by the council by June.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said the proposal was before Port Phillip Council, as the lease manager.
He said the issue was one for Port Phillip Council initially, but that the government had "a strong view that publicly accessible open space, such as the roof top areas, should be as accessible to as many people as possible".
St Kilda Sea Baths has a troubled history, beginning in 1992 when the Kirner government awarded the contract for its redevelopment to a company called Zarawaters. That company went into receivership six years later, with planning problems and legal fights stalling the project.
Port Phillip councillor Dick Gross was on the council when Zarawaters went bust, leaving a half-finished work site on the beachfront. "It lay partially developed and unfinished like a whale on a beach for a decade," said Cr Gross.
He said the views from the sea baths were "the best ... of the bay in Melbourne" but when he took his wife their some time ago "you couldn't get up, it was made difficult to get up".
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