Adelaide City Council to sell assets including beach volleyball court and car park to raise money for ‘future fund’

A popular inner-city volleyball court and car park will be sold by the financially challenged Adelaide City Council.

Adelaide City Council will start selling a secret list of assets as it faces operating losses of almost $100m in four years.

Elected members already have voted to put a popular city volleyball court and car park on the market while the details of seven other assets will remain confidential.

The move to sell the Beach Volleyball court on the corner of Pirie Street and Frome Street and adjacent Pirie-Flinders UPark station comes after councillors last month decided to continue a rate freeze.

The former Franklin St bus depot is also expected to be sold. Proceeds will be put into a new “future fund” designed to generate a new income stream to help the council get back into the black.

Councillors last month rejected a staff push to increase the rate in the dollar for residential and commercial properties, instead deciding to raise fees and charges at the rate of inflation while allowing borrowings to increase to $93 million by June.

The City Beach volleyball court on the corner of Pirie Street and Frome Street will be sold by the Adelaide City Council. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The council’s increasingly precarious position is unprecedented, with one staff report late last year warning it was at risk of becoming “financially unviable”.

The council has incurred operating deficits for the past three financial years totalling $58.5m. A further $39m loss is forecast for this financial year.

Four hundred temporary, casual and full-time jobs have been cut in a bid to annually save $20m in operational savings demanded by the dominant Team Adelaide faction.

Much of the council’s debt involves using borrowed money in recent years to buy the former Le Cornu site at North Adelaide and spending tens of millions upgrading Rundle Mall, Victoria Square, Topham Mall, Bent Street, Gawler Place, Waymouth Street and the Frome Street Bikeway.

The pandemic has put the council’s finances under further stress, with decreased activity in the CBD reducing its income by an estimated $20m since last March.

Councillors were told last November they must increase rates, fees and charges if the council was to return to operating surpluses.

Elected members have asked staff to investigate how properties exempt from rates such as universities, schools and churches can be levied.

Exempt properties cost the council more than $35m each year in lost rate revenue.

The Pirie-Flinders UPark station will be sold by the Adelaide City Council. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Team Adelaide also has sought more detail on how much is needed to be spent over the next decade on critical infrastructure.

Staff have presented revised financial modelling which shows more money will be needed to be borrowed to cover operational costs, infrastructure maintenance and a $28m contribution towards the proposed $400m Adelaide Central Market Arcade redevelopment.

Under a revised long term financial plan – to be discussed at a forthcoming workshop – the council’s debt will reduce to $68m by 2029.

However, an estimated $175m needs to be spent upgrading or replacing key assets such as the Torrens Weir, Adelaide Bridge and Grenfell Street-Currie Street bus corridor. This will lift the debt to at least $143m by 2031.

The workshop will be briefed on how city footpaths, roads and stormwater drainage also need to be upgraded over the next decade, taking the potential infrastructure spend to over $400m – prompting council’s decision to start selling assets.

Property and commercial associate director Tom McCready confirmed “opportunities” to “maximise public value for ratepayers” from the council’s extensive property portfolio were being explored.

“This includes consideration of opportunities relating to the sale of underperforming assets as well as leveraging existing assets for city shaping initiatives,” he said.

Mr McCready said the City Beach Volleyball site had been identified as “a potential mixed-use development opportunity acting as a catalyst within the City East precinct”.

The City Beach volleyball courts are popular with CBD office workers.

“The City of Adelaide intends to release the site to the market to gauge interest and will consider how the adjoining Pirie-Flinders UPark may add value to the site,” he said.

Mr McCready said the council would work with Volleyball SA “with regard to their occupation of the existing site and future opportunities” to relocate elsewhere.

Follow @ColinJamesTiser