Cultural precinct on the waterfront gazumped by Tax Office building

Prime waterfront real estate likely to be the ATO's new home in Gosford

The former Gosford Public School site on the Gosford waterfront is unofficially the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) preferred site for its new building.

Gosford Council CEO Mr Paul Anderson said he believes the old school site has already been chosen as the ATO’s development site. Member for Robertson, Ms Lucy Wicks MP said she could not confirm the school site, as a formal decision has not yet been made.

Coast Community News has also asked the Australian Taxation Office and Government Property NSW to confirm the school site as the ATO’s choice.

A spokesperson for Government Property NSW said: “Government Property NSW has not received any correspondence from the ATO regarding a decision on the former Gosford Public School site. “On October 17, 2014, Minister Perrottet and Minister Stokes jointly announced the Expression of Interest campaign for the sale of the former Gosford Public School.

“This announcement coincided with the launch of the ATO’s accommodation requirement in Gosford. “The NSW Government is committed to revitalising Gosford City by progressing the sale of this site. “The former school site represents an outstanding and prominent location with immediate access to amenities, facilities and public transport.

“For this reason, we believe the property is ideally placed to be a strong contender in the ATO accommodation pre lease opportunity for up to 600 staff.” Mr Anderson said Gosford Council had been an applicant during the first phase of the Australian Taxation Office’s calls for expressions of interest.

“Gosford Council was an applicant but we’re not anymore; we got through the fi rst lot and not through the second,” Mr Anderson said. “It is going on the school site and I have been pretty critical of it because the State Government went through a process with council and signed off and agreed to the school site being part of the cultural precinct on the waterfront,” he said.

Mr Anderson said he could confi rm that Gosford Council submitted a building design as part of the expression of interest project but that he had no knowledge of the winning design. “Lucy Wicks keeps telling everyone there are 600 jobs coming next year; she has obviously never tried to get a development application through the JRPP process,” he said.

Mr Anderson said the development application for the ATO building would be required to go through the Joint Regional Planning Panel because its value would be greater than $5 million.

Interview, Sep 8, 2015
Paul Anderson,
Gosford Council
Interview, Sep 8, 2015
Kelly Bourke, Government
Property NSW
Jackie Pearson, journalist