Magazine - ACT Seeks Stadium Land Transfer Deal

By Editor in General News on 28th Oct 2009 9:45

The ACT Government is negotiating a land transfer deal to avoid a potential multimillion-dollar rent increase at Canberra Stadium.

The Government lease ends in 2024 but the peppercorn rent of 5c a year it pays to the stadium owner, the Australian Sports Commission, finishes on December 31. If a new deal is not struck, the commission is entitled to market-based rent from January 1.

General manager of territory venues and events Neale Guthrie said the commission is ''looking for parcels of land on their boundaries out here at Bruce that would give them surety over their site so there is not more development encroaching''. The area had become crowded with the expansion of the AIS coupled with the Gungahlin Drive extension on one side and housing going up at a rapid rate on the other side.

The commission is seeking about three football fields of undeveloped land and Mr Guthrie said it was concerned that increasing development in the area was putting the ACT in a strong negotiating position. ''They're looking to stop development at Braybrook Street which runs between Ginninderra Drive and Battye Street,'' Mr Guthrie said.

He said the concerns centred on room for future expansion and security risks. Negotiations have been continuing for more than 12 months but a solution looks unlikely before the December 31 deadline. ''We are working on the interim solution of extending the lease just to get that cleared so that's out of the way,'' he said.

Mr Guthrie said there were two options being considered.  ''We either get a new lease on Canberra Stadium and there is an exchange which is quite a formal process ... we didn't talk numbers but it would be a lot of money and that would be offset by land swaps,'' he said.

He said the Government was seeking an additional 60-year lease to ensure control over the asset.

The sports commission has a lease on the site until 2089.

But cabinet documents issued to The Canberra Times show that in 1999 the then Carnell government was offered the stadium for a purchase price of $11.25million.

Source & More: www.canberratimes.com.au

Read more articles in General News, by Editor or from October 2009.