First steps to fix up Lake Grace’s ‘unsightly’ abandoned pink building on town’s main strip made by shire

An “unsightly” abandoned building on the main drag of a Wheatbelt town is set for a revamp after nearly a decade sitting idle. The Shire of Lake Grace has recently made the first steps to renovate Lot 352, named the Pink Building Project due to its bright pink facade, that has laid deserted for about 10 years. Shire chief executive Alan George said community members and travellers have “complained it’s unsightly”, with some even suggesting it be demolished. The 2063sqm of land fronts Stubbs Street and stretches from the Mather Road corner to the caravan park adjacent to the Lake Grace visitor centre. Mr George said the building is a hard one for visitors to miss because of its size, central location, and bright pink colour. Built in 1956 by George Lannin as a Holden dealership and farm machinery sales store, the franchise operated for 50 years until it was sold and turned into a new and used furniture showroom, and cabinet-maker’s workshop on the western side. An additional smaller workshop on the east end of the building ceased use before the rest of the building was emptied in about 2016. The shire purchased the building in September 2025 with the idea to improve the town’s presentation and potentially create more opportunities and services. Upon ownership, the shire conducted a survey in October last year, gathering 115 responses suggesting what to do with the site. The three main recommendations were a gym, an op-shop and a community resource centre multipurpose space. These ideas were backed during a meeting at the Lake Grace Town Hall on February 6, attended by 29 people. The desire for a gym stems from Lake Grace Gymnastics Club operating from the town hall, an arrangement Mr George said causes conflict when other groups need to use the space. He said the current op-shop is set up in a repurposed church but the structure is in dire need of repairs and the shop is overfilling with donations. The larger space in the pink building would mean a safer work environment and allow the business to expand as well as increase foot traffic via its main street location. Mr George said others have suggested bulldozing the existing building for a new, modernised purpose-built structure. No matter the final decision, he said the shire was committed to creating the most opportunities as possible for the town with this space. “There’s no reason why the three spaces can’t be utilised for three different things, the showroom in the middle could also be partitioned off into two it’s that big of an area,” he said. “And the big workshop on the western end, that could be divided into two maybe three different uses. “So, one use overall doesn’t work for me, we intend it to be multipurpose.” The shire council ruled at its February 18 meeting that the next steps revolved around background research regarding price, feasibility, and community benefit before any final decision was made.