Ash Bolt
The City of Greater Geelong is calling for community input on the potential sale of four council-owned properties, including the Civic Car Park.
With the release of its budget last week, the City has announced it was looking at selling four surplus properties to help reduce its borrowings and debt in future budgets.
The land holdings are not in the council’s long-term plans and are likely to attract interest, given they all host commercial activities.
Deputy Mayor Trent Sullivan said the proceeds of sale would help to deliver new and upgraded assets across Greater Geelong.
“To help balance upcoming budgets, reduce our borrowing levels and invest in priority projects, we propose to sell properties that are surplus to our long-term plans,” Cr Sullivan said.
“Conditions of purchase would be imposed on two of the properties, to ensure community access can continue into the future.”
The two properties that would include a condition of purchase are the Civic Car Park in Gheringhap Street and a Belmont property.
For the Civic Car Park, the City intended to include a condition that would require the future owner to retain the property’s 503 commercial car parks for a minimum of 10 years.
It would also include a condition on the sale on a Reynolds Road property to ensure the Maternal Health Centre located on the site would have a guaranteed 20-year lease.
The Reynolds Road property also includes a ten pin bowling centre with a commercial lease.
The other properties the City intended to sell were the Busport Car Park and the land along the Princes Highway where Corio’s KFC is located.
The council has raised $32 million in recent years by selling other surplus sites such as the Old Geelong Gaol and the Old Geelong Post Office.
Finance portfolio chair Anthony Aitken said public submissions were encouraged and would be received until Tuesday, May 24.
“To repair our council budget in Geelong we have to sell an historic level of assets and we have identified some properties that don’t need to be under community ownership,” he said.
“The program will help us tackle our debt levels and reduce the need to borrow even more money in coming years, without impacting on residents’ rates. We have to live within our means in Geelong.
“I encourage the community to give us feedback on the identified properties. If there is strong negative feedback we will review the assets identified and any other aspects of the proposed budget they are interested in.”
Submissions made online at yoursay.geelongaustralia.com.au/CAFP.
