Ill-fated complex is finally emptied

THE door has finally closed on Manunda’s infamous Plaza Palms housing complex and the hunt is on for a developer to transform the inner-city eyesore.

Property owners, forced to shut the site when they could not obtain public liability in

surance, are now without an income from their tenants.

They still have to pay rates, and several face depressed valuations for their investments.

It is understood that demolishing the site is too expensive a proposition.

“We have to get it to a sellable point,” one owner said.

“There are some issues for the owners and at least one property is a deceased estate.

“It really comes down to what developers want to do with the site.”

The complex has gained an unenviable reputation as a slum and breeding ground for violence and street crime since it was repurposed as shortterm housing in 2010.

Steven Ford has suffered through years of vandalism at his McDonnell St unit block as residents of Plaza Palms regularly smashed windows or tried to break in through the roof of his property.

“It has been a long, hard road, but it is finally over,” Mr Ford said. “We called the police a couple of nights ago; there were five or six families left and they were partying all day and night.

“Hopefully it will be developed into something nice.”

The notorious complex is expected to be boarded up and a caretaker retained to ensure the empty property does not become a haven for transients.

“The power will be cut and the water will be cut,” Member for Cairns Michael Healy said.

“Police have clear instructions (about trespassers).

“We don’t want squatters there. The best way to describe the site is dilapidated, and that is being polite.”

He said former residents of the complex had been relocated throughout Cairns to avoid a recurrence of the Plaza Palms debacle.

“We don’t want to create another quagmire,” Mr Healy said. “We have a number at student accommodation who are waiting to be relocated to the Cape once the biosecurity zones are lifted. The next step will be finding interested parties to buy the site.”