Buyer comes forward with $7.25m offer for Council chambers building in Castle Street

A buyer has come forward for the Castle Street chambers and the museum sale is almost a done deal.

The Council chambers is one of four properties up for sale to help fund the Cultural and Civic Space under construction in Gordon Street.

A buyer has come forward for the Coffs Harbour City Council chambers building in Castle Street.

It is one of four properties up for sale to help fund the Cultural and Civic Space under construction in Gordon Street.

Council has held the property since the mid 1980s and it has operated as their central administration building and chambers ever since.

The Cultural and Civic Space currently under construction at Gordon Street.

The two-storey brick building has a 45-car-space basement car park.

The disposal of four Council buildings is an integral part of the funding model for the Cultural and Civic Space (CCS) estimated to cost $81.27 million.

In May last year it was revealed that an expression of interest marketing campaign failed to flush out any decent offers.

There were offers on three of the buildings (the Castle St administration building; Rigby House at 27-29 Duke Street; and the Museum on Harbour Drive) but they were all below market value.

There were no offers on the buildings at 169-171 Rose Avenue.

A for sale sign outside the chambers in March last year.

But now a buyer has come forward with an offer of $7,250,000 plus GST for the chambers.

The prospective purchaser is noted within a confidential report to be considered by Councillors at their Thursday meeting.

The recommendations before Councillors is to accept the offer.

As part of the sale Council will continue to occupy the property for another three years at a rental of $850,000 per annum.

The Coffs Harbour Regional Museum.

Also up for consideration on Thursday will be the sale of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum.

Last year an offer of $950,000 was rejected by Councillors and earlier this year they considered an increased offer of $1,000,000.

But due to concerns the heritage value of the building may not be preserved by the new owners it was decided to delay the sale until an appropriate covenant was put in place to protect this value.

The covenant has now been drawn up and with the $1m offer still on the table, the recommendation is to proceed with the sale.

Similar to the Castle St arrangement, Council will continue to occupy the museum for three years while the CCS is built.

The museum lease will start at a rental of $60,500 per annum.