Brisbane Rd Mooloolaba: Changes for hotel development agreement, search continues for carpark commercial tenants

Council and its Brisbane Rd hotel developer have had to strike a deed of variation while the search for tenants of the multi-storey carpark’s ground floor continues.

Tweaks have been made to the agreement between Sunshine Coast Council and a major Mooloolaba hotel developer while a push is on to fill vacant leases in the Brisbane Road Carpark shopfront.

The separate matters were tackled at the council’s ordinary meeting in Caloundra on Wednesday, September 21, 2022.

The gallery heard how a delay to the settlement of the hotel block on the Brisbane Rd Carpark site and prevailing market conditions had sparked the need for the council to enter into a deed of variation with KPAT Mooloolaba Pty Ltd – the developer set to deliver a new 4.5-star hotel on the site.

Council officers said the new deal would not change significantly and the council would not incur added costs or loss from the land sale, aside from additional legal fees.

Councillors entered confidential session for a brief discussion on the new deed before voting unanimously to support chief executive Emma Thomas finalising and execute the deed of variation.

The meeting heard the hotel project was targeting a completion date of December 31, 2023.

Artist's impressions of the Mooloolaba hotel project by KPAT, released as part of a formal application to develop the remainder of the Brisbane Road Carpark site.

Pricings in the development agreement showed a $200,000 deposit had been received while $4.3m was due to be paid to the council upon settlement on June 30, 2022, while $2.7m was to be paid 30 days after operational completion, rounding out the $7.2m sale price.

Councillors Winston Johnston and Joe Natoli thanked council staff, legal advisors and KPAT Mooloolaba for their work in coming to the agreement which had given the councillors comfort about security of payments and the future development.

Mayor Mark Jamieson had earlier flagged he may have had a declarable conflict of interest.

Mr Jamieson advised KPAT Property Pty Ltd is sole shareholder of KPAT Mooloolaba Pty Ltd and KPAT Property shareholder Denis Wagner had spoken at Mr Jamieson’s campaign launch in 2016.

He said the speech had been given free of charge on an “entirely voluntary basis” about airports as the Wagner family had been developing Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport at the time and the Sunshine Coast Airport expansion was being prioritised by the Sunshine Coast Council.

Mr Jamieson explained Mr Wagner’s speech was not a reportable gift and had occurred outside his relevant term as a councillor, which meant it did not constitute a prescribed conflict of interest.

Brisbane Road car park, Mooloolaba. Picture: Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

Councillors voted unanimously to allow Mr Jamieson to remain in the room and participate in the decision-making process.

Meanwhile councillors also voted to take their search for tenants in two of three ground floor tenancies at the Brisbane Road Carpark out to open market.

Council officers explained two previous tender releases had resulted in a tender withdrawn, another non-conforming, another deemed unsuitable and only one successful respondent.

Negotiations were being undertaken to secure a tenant for the third tenancy as of August, 2022.

Council officers sought approval to market the remaining two leases by agent in the open market as opposed to another tender process, to enable the council to be “more competitive”.

Local councillor Joe Natoli said it was “imperative” they took these measures otherwise they may struggle to lease the remaining two tenancies in the near future.

He described the tender process as “clunky” and an added burden in the current market.

Councillors voted unanimously to take the remaining tenancies to the open market.