CONTROVERSY HAS NOT BEEN PARKED YET

ESTATE agents like to say fortunes are not made when you sell, but from the moment you buy.

Time will tell whether Far East, owner of Care Park, will hit the jackpot with its $48 million outlay for the controversial Bruce Bishop Car Park.

But the Hong-Kong based developer has a reputation as a shrewd investor.

The big question for Gold Coast ratepayers is whether their council has been equally shrewd with this sale.

At $48 million it is one of the biggest asset sales in the city’s history.

The cash will fund nearly half of the planned Cultural Precinct at Evandale, thus averting the need to add to the city’s $635 million debt burden.

Council has also suggested the sale will ensure the site remains a car park for the foreseeable future.

Care Park is, as their name suggests, in the business of car parks. It is one of the biggest operators in Australia.

It has guaranteed maintaining a minimum of 640 public parking spaces with a further 100 allocated to council for community use.

There will be argument over whether this is an adequate number, but at present Bruce Bishop’s 1600 car spaces are rarely filled. There will also be concern this sale will drive up the cost of parking there.

By its nature and history, any sale of Bruce Bishop will invite all sorts of conspiracy theories.

After all, the deal is still dependant on the Save Surfers Paradise Supreme Court challenge to any sale falling over.

The car park is also of course one area of focus of a Crime and Corruption Commission probe that will unfold in the coming months.

But the indications are that there is no sinister plot behind this sale.

Care Park likes car parks, particularly those that have the potential to turn into mixed use developments, such as hotels, shops and apartments.

That is precisely what Bruce Bishop offers Care Park.

It should be noted that Far East is also a 4.99 per cent shareholder in The Star.

It won’t displease The Star that Far East has bought a blue chip block that could otherwise have been seen as a potential site of a second casino.

This purchase now reduces the list of viable options for an integrated resort development.

The sale is not without controversy. Councillors Dawn Crichlow and Daphne McDonald, the two longest serving civic leaders in the city’s history, last night condemned the deal as too rushed and too cheap.

They also argue that the sale should not be contemplated until after the CCC and Supreme Court actions have played out.

But this sale, as the council concedes, will not be consumated until those matters are settled.

The bottom line is that the core business of councils is roads, rates and rubbish. It’s not operating car parks.

If the Care Park purchase proceeds, Surfers Paradise will still have a car park for the foreseeable future and Council will have the cash it needs to deliver our Cultural Precinct.