LAND at the Perth airport has been proposed for a multi-million dollar racetrack development for the Asia Pacific Le Mans series.
LAND at the Perth airport has been proposed for a multi-million dollar racetrack development for the Asia Pacific Le Mans series.
Westralia Airports Corporation chief executive officer Graham Muir said Le Mans series organiser Panoz was looking at a number of sites in Perth of which the airport was just one.
“The airport has a number of sites that could be developed...at this stage there’s no formal approval, we’ve had discussions and we’ve identified some potential locations if it did become a proposal,” Mr Muir said.
“The airport is reasonably centrally located with good road transport access.”
The recently cancelled Le Mans event in Adelaide was predicted to generate more than $87 million worth of media exposure for the city.
It is understood Panoz is currently focused on finding a replacement venue for the November event and at this stage no commitment has been made to any site in Perth for 2003.
There are approximately 700 hectares of land available at the airport with the potential for a range of non-aviation developments including hotels and offices.
Westralia Airports Corporation are planning to release details of a long-term vision for the development of this area later this week.
The land the airport stands on is gazetted Commonwealth land and therefore falls under Commonwealth law.
WAC has a 99-year lease contract with the Commonwealth Government for the land.
The State doesn’t have any jurisdiction over environmental laws for the land although Mr Muir said WAC was keen to get State input into any developments.
WAC is currently involved in a number of projects with approximately 33,000 square metres of new land either developed or under construction.
“There is some $22 million worth of building development including the regional headquarters of Cummins Engine Com-pany,” Mr Muir said.
Income from property increased to $13.49 million over the 1999-2000 year accounting for 20 per cent of the airport’s revenue stream.
A new $8million, 11,500 International Freight Centre has also been developed with WAC securing three new tenants for about 9,500 square metres of space. Liquorspot, Australia Post and new WA air freight company WDM International have all signed long-term leases at the centre.
