By Shelby Brooks
Shop owners and tenants were devastated when a fire broke out in Pakenham’s Centre Court Arcade in the early hours of Tuesday 3 August.
Police believe the fire was suspicious, though no arrests have been made in the case.
Many hairdressers have been locked out of their salons since August due to damage to the interior building, finding refuge at other salons across Pakenham.
Jim Gregory’s Centre Court Book Exchange was one of the shops to suffer the most damage in the blaze.
Jim spent 15 years building his 30,000 strong collection of unique and interesting books, ranging from popular fiction and crime to westerns and hard to get pulp fiction.
“There would be quite a few rare books in there, really unusual things,” Jim said.
“A lot of history and war history that is a bit unusual and hard to get.”
He had to throw out four skip bins worth of books, approximately half of his collection, due to the water and smoke damage from the fire.
“It’s dragging on a bit, repair works haven’t started yet but they are saying it should be open again by the end of February,“ he told the Gazette 1 December.
“I could just not open again but I have a lot of books that still need to find a home.“
Jim is hoping he should be able to reopen the business in the arcade by July 2022, if not earlier.
