Press Release

23 June, 2010

Robina Hub for Council

MELINDA MARSHALL

marshallm@goldcoast.com.au

ONE of Robina’s hottest pieces of land will become home to new Gold Coast City Council offices in a milestone $9.9 million purchase.

The council will develop one of three new office precincts for the city on a 13,940sqm vacant block beside Robina station after negotiating the Robina Land Corporation down from a $15 million-plus asking price.

The council has come full circle on the Robina relocation plan, after having rejected an offer of a free block of land worth $9 million from a consortium of developers, including the Robina Land Corporation, in 2008.

It is also tipped to intensify the rivalry between Robina and Southport for the title of the city’s business centre. ‘‘It’s a vote of confidence for Robina,’’ said Robina Land Corporation director Tony Tippett yesterday.

‘‘We did the deal at significantly below market price, probably around half the market value rate, but in the interests of getting council to Robina we were happy to do the deal.’’ The deal follows years of in-fighting over where to house a growing number of staff.

Mayor Ron Clarke said yesterday if the council had gone ahead with the 2008 land offer it would have had to contract the consortium to build the project in exchange for the ‘free’ land east of Skilled Park.

Robina Cr Jan Grew said it would have been a good idea to take the land but it was time to move on.

Cr Clarke said the offices would use only part of the land, leaving the rest for development or sale down the track. He hailed the purchase as a ‘landmark decision’ that put paid to a previous plan to build a single $375 million ‘Taj Mahal’ office for all council staff.

‘‘I think a city of this sort of linear structure it’s far better to have one north, one south, and one in the middle,’’ he said.

The remaining two offices are earmarked for Coomera, where a site is yet to be identified, and Southport, potentially at the current library.

The council buildings at Evandale would be redeveloped as an arts hub but could still retain the council chambers.

Building at Robina could begin within two years, in time to shift staff from rented properties in Varsity and Waterside West before the leases run out in four years.

Deputy Mayor Daphne McDonald and Cr Bob La Castra voted against the purchase because they preferred two other parcels owned by QIC that were closer to the Robina Town Centre.