Central Coast Council is more than halfway to delivering its planned $60M asset sales program, with settled sales of $34.78M already in the bag and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Landcom on the sale of the Gosford chambers building, with the proceeds from that to be over and above the $60M target.
At its latest meeting on December 14, Council heard that the land known as Warner Industrial Park was the latest successful sale, having been valued at $19.5M and fetching over $27M.
Administrator Rik Hart said other sale negotiations were progressing well.
“We continue to demonstrate to the commercial lenders that we are able to pay back the emergency bank loans that had to be obtained to reimburse the restricted funds that had been spent unlawfully on projects that the community had benefited from,” he said.
“Importantly, value has been delivered back to the community with the sale of properties to date achieving just over $10M above their market valuations.
“Our financial recovery plan put in place in November last year is working and we are hitting all milestones and targets.
“Together with the cost reduction measures, tightened budget management controls, asset sales and a focus on productivity gains, we are doing everything we can to ensure the organisation’s financial sustainability.”
The MOU agreed to between Council and Landcom would see the Gosford chambers building plus the old Broadwater Hotel site and land behind the chambers and Central Coast Conservatorium sold to the State Government, to be transformed into a TAFE campus and housing development.
The plan would open up the current TAFE site for redevelopment too.
Some of the land needs to be reclassified from community to operational land before the sale can proceed.
Hart said the sale was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Gosford but warned Council was not out of the financial woods yet as he reinforced the need to see the current 15 per cent rate rise extended beyond June 2024.
Terry Collins
Why is nothing been done about large roundabouts trees and grass been looked after so you can see cars making turns it is downright dangerous