Kiama council will test the marketplace for the potential future sale of the southern Akuna Street carpark site.
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At council’s February meeting, a motion was passed in confidential session that council pursue the sale of the southern Akuna Street carpark site outright, with a condition of sale requiring 100 car parking spaces to be provided, “that are additional to LEP requirements for residential and commercial component on this site”.
The motion also included that the parking would be controlled by council, and that subject to the determination of the development application for the Mitre 10/Akuna Street development, council seek an expression of interest from the market to test the potential returns for council.
“The benefit of a conditional sale of the site is that a developer would take the risk of constructing and marketing the site and in return council will achieve its Kiama CBD parking agenda,” the motion read.
An attempt by councillors Neil Reilly, Kathy Rice and Mark Westhoff to rescind this motion at Tuesday night’s meeting was defeated.
Cr Reilly said the initial motion was “a quick fix to get a little bit of popularity”, and that “we can’t have any real notion of the value of this property, given the massive development that is to take place around it”.
“Therefore, to sell off ratepayers’ assets without full knowledge of its true value would be negligent in the extreme,” he said.
Fellow councillor Mark Way said although “we need the Joint Regional Planning Panel to sort out (that separate development) across the road first”, council should “go out to developers and ask who would be interested in a development like that”.
“We may even make a million or two on top of it, and achieve our aim in the Kiama CBD of having extra parking,” he said.
There is currently no timeframe for the testing of the market, but council general manager Michael Forsyth said the process would likely include discussions with an agent to determine an Expression of Interest process.
The council property on the opposite side of Akuna Street has been sold and a development application was submitted late last year for a development consisting of retail, residential and basement car park that will provide pedestrian access from Terralong Street to Akuna Street.
Kiama council approved the sale of former printing works and car park sites in Shoalhaven Street and former Mitre 10 store in Terralong Street.
Council agreed to the sale to Nicolas Daoud and Co Pty Ltd for $8.5 million.
Aldi is considered a key tenant for the proposed commercial complex.
Due to the size and complexity of this project, assessment of development proposals will be managed by the independent Joint Regional Planning Panel.
Mr Forsyth said the JRPP had inspected the site, but were not likely to have a formal hearing until mid-May.