VICTORIAN Planning Minister Matthew Guy will visit Wodonga after failed talks saw a Sydney investor withdraw a $110 million proposal to redevelop Wodonga’s town centre.
A February 24 meeting is expected to involve Mr Guy, investor representatives and Wodonga business leaders.
Business leaders are angry at what they termed the “bungling” of the proposal by Wodonga Council and staff of Places Victoria, the government entity charged with responsibility for transforming the city’s former railway land.
Member for Benambra Bill Tilley said invitations to the meeting would be extended to the council and staff of Places Victoria.
“Of course you would be concerned if $110 million in private money coming to town was withdrawn,” Mr Tilley said.
“In the best interests of the biggest population within my electorate I want to see the city grow.
“I would strongly encourage the city of Wodonga to participate in this month’s meeting with the minister, including the mayor, the chief executive officer and members of the planning department.”
Bill Pickering, the managing director of Hugo Halliday, a marketing firm representing the Sydney investor, yesterday confirmed his client had made the decision late last week to drop his redevelopment plan, believing the Wodonga Council and Places Victoria had “made it impossible and had done everything to sabotage the project”.
“My client is a major Australian investor with international investments who has broad experience in major developments particularly retail and whole suburban developments,” Mr Pickering said.
“Initially the Wodonga site was identified by ourselves for our client as being suitable for the sort of scale of development he would be interested in,” Mr Pickering said.
He said eight months ago the investor offered Wodonga Council and Places Victoria initial sketch designs of a town centre for Wodonga.
The designs incorporated major anchor tenants including Woolworths, a major hardware concept store, retail stores, outdoor dining, open parkland and commercial space.
“There would be ample parking at a single level linking the existing town and assisting other local business in the area with the provision of parking and access to them,” he said.
“We have had some discussions with local business and they are interested in seeing this happen because of their concern about trade disappearing over the border to Albury.”
Mr Pickering said the Places Victoria master plan for the railway land, released by Wodonga Council before Christmas was focused on selling the site in a “piecemeal” fashion.
“You can’t do that with an integrated development from our point of view,” he said.
“As my client puts it, he has a $110 million cheque ready to go.
“He expected a level playing field and to compete appropriately to provide a development meeting an investment opportunity you would get only once in 100 years.”
Mr Tilley said he was at a meeting held in Melbourne last Friday including representatives of Places Victoria and Hugo Halliday where the Wodonga town centre proposal was discussed.
He said while it wasn’t made clear by Hugo Halliday at that meeting the investor had plans to bail out of the proposal, he said it was a “robust meeting” and “it didn’t end that well”.
Wodonga Council last night refused to respond to news of the Sydney investor’s decision to back away from his town centre proposal, with a council spokeswoman referring all questions to Places Victoria.
That organisation received questions from The Border Mail regarding concerns raised by the investor and local business leaders but said its response would not be available until this morning.
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