Page 4401 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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I understand that the lessee has approached both the Office of Industry and Development and the Interim Territory Planning Authority seeking a variation of the lease to provide for a readjustment of the gross floor area -
which -
would allow up to 8,000 square metres of retail and office use.
At that time you also stated that you would consider a report being prepared by the OID, and you said that you would advise the Assembly, the lessee and the public accordingly, when you got it. My question is: why have the Assembly and the public not been advised, and why has an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald on 23 October advertised well over 9,000 square metres of office and retail space for section 52?
MR KAINE: I am not responsible for a private company putting an advertisement in a public newspaper, Mr Speaker, and I do not know the answer to that question. But I will find out what the current position is from the ACT Government's viewpoint. I do not believe that the original covenant on that lease has been changed at all, but I will confirm what the current situation is.
MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question. Considering that it has been over two years since the lease was sold and the lease conditions clearly have not been met in terms of the development, is there any reason why that lease has not been determined, as has happened in other cases, for example, the one that Mr Jensen referred to in the paper the other day?
MR KAINE: Yes, there are a considerable number of reasons why that has not taken place, Mr Speaker. One of the facts is that not only the lessee but also a company that made a considerable financial investment in that block before it was discovered that the lessee could not go ahead with it have indicated that they are involved in considerable legal difficulty which could involve the ACT Government. The ACT Government has given them an opportunity to negotiate their way out of it rather than foreclose and cause at least one company a very significant financial loss, which under the present circumstances I do not think would be good for the ACT economy. But again I will get the full details of that and make them available.
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