The Town of Cambridge has named Multiplex as the preferred tenderer on the multi-million dollar Perry Lakes redevelopment.
The Town of Cambridge has named Multiplex as the preferred tenderer on the multi-million dollar Perry Lakes redevelopment.
Multiplex was selected over three other tenderers – Cape Bouvard, Mirvac Fini, and a consortium made up by the Satterley Group, the Alcock Brown-Neaves Group and Hawaiian Management.
Stockland was also initially invited to tender, but withdrew from the process last year.
Council voted five to three in favour of the Multiplex bid. And while mayor Marlene Anderton expressed concern that council may be rushing the decision, she was outvoted with deputy mayor Corrine MacRae insisting that the mayor’s views were not those of the majority of council.
The mayor has previously declared an interest with each of the tendering companies, saying that either she or her husband has a commercial or personal relationship with each of the parties.
Following the decision, Ms Anderton released a statement saying that, following the construction of replacement athletics, basketball and rugby union facilities on the adjacent Ak Reserve at a cost of approximately $25.7 million, the outdated and underutilised Empire Games venues will be demolished and the land subdivided.
“Residential development will be in keeping with the surrounding area and the overall project will be environmentally sustainable and sympathetic with the existing parkland setting,” she said.
Ms Anderton also pointed out that an independent probity auditor had overseen the selection process.
The Town of Cambridge has estimated returns over the life of the project could be more than $100 million, and has opened Multiplex’s proposal for six weeks of public consultation closing on April 18.
The business plan released for public consultation indicates that a ‘value for money’ assessment was made in deciding on Multiplex as a preferred tenderer.
“The commercial structure proposed by Multiplex offers superior financial returns to the town compared to the other tender proposals received and provides a significant shift of the project risk from the town,” the plan says.
“The offer from Multiplex includes an upfront payment and distributions tied to gross sales insulating the town significantly from any cost overruns and development risk.
“As Multiplex will provide the project finance the town will not be required to raise any bridging loans, estimated under the public sector comparator to reach a maximum debt level of $34.5 million and an interest cost of $5 million.”
The offer from Multiplex to the town to create approximately 261 lots was $59.6 million plus an additional $25.7 million to replace sporting facilities.
If Multiplex is appointed as the development partner following public advertisement, the council expects new sporting facilities to be completed by October 2006, and the land development component to be completed by April 2015.
The town originally considered its options in relation to the deteriorating 30,000 seat stadium in 1998 and decided that it would be too costly to renovate and maintain the stadium.
Neither the mayor nor deputy mayor could be reached for comment.