Uncertainty surrounds the future of the large council-constructed car park on Creswick Road, with a recent planning application revealing a bold intention on the part of Officeworks to extend its commercial operations across the property.
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For the last five years the site at 122 Creswick Road has been leased by the City of Ballarat at a cost of $200,000 per annum, with the lease quietly renewed in January this year. Since October 2021, it has served as the city's main COVID-19 testing facility.
The plans by Officeworks, published on the City of Ballarat planning website on Tuesday morning, envisage the construction of a new $3.5 million Officeworks building, boasting a floor space of just under 3000 square metres.
The plans also describe the existing Officeworks building on Creswick Road, situated adjacent to the site on its southern side, as an "adjoining building", implying the two would operate in tandem, assuming the proposal is approved.
As it stands, the proposed development would mark the latest "big box" retailer investment in the important thoroughfare, which nowadays counts the likes of Haymes Paint, PETstock, Boltons, RSEA Safety and - of course - Bunnings as among its most prominent businesses.
In a move indicative of the seriousness with which Officeworks views its proposal, the company lodged a caveat over the property one week after submitting its planning application, citing an existing agreement between it and the current owner of the site, Jodacati Pty Ltd - a Geelong-based company owned by Brian O'Shannassy of Russells Bridge.
The caveat is not without significance, with the City of Ballarat confirming the option to renew its 12 month lease beyond 2023 turns on the consent of the landowner and - as is implicit in the land title documents - Officeworks.
Taken together, these discrete developments raise serious questions over the future of the site - both in terms of its original intended use as a public car park and as a temporary COVID-19 testing centre - as well as the viability of the City of Ballarat's investment in the site to date, which stands in the order of at least $1.85 million.
On Tuesday, City of Ballarat director of growth and development Natalie Robertson dismissed the suggestion council had ever intended the site to be used as a car park beyond the life of the lease agreement.
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"The original development and lease arrangement secured the site for use as a car park for the term of the lease," she said, adding that both the landowner and council could decide against continuing with "this arrangement in the future".
This position, however, - at least so far as the site's intended use is concered - runs contrary to the much-publicised history of the site.
Formerly a disused Shell service station, council expressly redeveloped the site into a car park in 2018-19 to compensate for the 275 car spaces lost courtesy of the GovHub building on the old Civic Hall site.
The car park was also constructed with a view to meeting higher anticipated demand for CBD parking, with the GovHub building projected to attract an influx of public servants to the city.
Drawing on $2 million in state government funding for new car spaces, the City of Ballarat then spent $850,000 constructing the 300-space car park at 122 Creswick Road, a cost which stands at close to five times the original $180,000 allocated for the project.
At the time, the City of Ballarat blamed the significant cost blowout on weather-related delays and unanticipated soil remediation works.
Later, it emerged the project was never released for public tender precisely because the original budget for the project was so low - something which earned the project a reference or two in the 2020 Ombudsman report into the City of Ballarat.
When the carpark finally opened in November 2019 - some 14 months after expected completion in September 2018 - council's former director of development and growth Terry Demeo reiterated the view that the new Creswick Road car park was "effectively compensation for the demolition of the all-day car park" in Armstrong Street.
Mr Demeo added that although the City of Ballarat had not sought any contractual assurances from the owner that the site would remain a car park beyond the life of the lease, this was their "verbal intent".
"The lease has been undertaken in consultation with the landowner," he said. "They have an asset to look after....and their verbal intent is to keep using it as a car park."
This appears to align with the understanding of the Victorian government at the time of the carpark's completion.
"The Creswick Road carpark replaces 275 spaces at the Ballarat GovHub construction site, ensuring workers, residents and visitors can move more easily around the city," a Regional Development Victoria spokesperson said at the time, noting the new car park was intended to "improve parking across the city".
Despite this, and notwithstanding its considerable expenditure on the site, the City of Ballarat now confronts the prospect of having little to show for its $1.85 milllion investment come 1 January 2023, when the leasehold may well transfer to Officeworks.
Regarding the likely loss of the 300-space car park, Ms Robertson pointed out council and the state government had delivered "more than 700 new free car parking spaces" over the last two years, citing the new parking at the Ballarat Station precinct and Eastern Oval as examples.
She also clarified that Grampians Health had reimbursed the City of Ballarat for their "use of the site", such as utilities and maintenance.
The Officeworks planning application can be viewed online until Thursday September 1, after which it will be assessed by City of Ballarat planning officers.
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