Warner Business Park debate: Central Coast Council ‘confident’ it got the $27m sale right

Central Coast Council is ‘confident’ it got the $27m land sale right for Warner Business Park, despite the developers recording $120m in sales at the controversial site.

Debate over the sale of Warner Business Park and potential lost profits for Central Coast Council continues.

Council came under the spotlight this week after it was revealed that Newcastle-based property developer Winarch grossed $120m in profits after selling 25 industrial lots at the Jilliby site.

Council sold the site, on Sparks and Hue Hue roads, for $27m in July 2021 as part of its asset sale program to help the council out of its huge debt.

Council’s Administrator Rik Hart has defended the sale and said the issue has been misunderstood, explaining that “gross profit” did not include service costs for the site.

He gave the example of buying an apartment block off the plans.

Warner Business Park in Jilliby was sold for $27m by Central Coast Council in July 2021 – with developers recently selling 25 industrial lots for $120m.

Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart said he was confident the council got the right price.

“When you get there, you would expect to find an apartment there, you would expect to find the toilets connected to the sewer, you would expect to find the water comes out of the tap,” Mr Hart said.

“That’s exactly what has happened here, the people who have purchased those lots there, which is upwards of $4.8m as reported by the media … when I turn up there I would expect to have that site connected up to those services.

“Bear in mind the value of that site is all about it proximity, closeness to the M1. So that’s all a pretty expensive box of tricks that have to be pulled together.”

Mr Hart said the true profit of the sales had not been released.

Suspended councillor Greg Best described it as “the sale of the century”. Picture: Sue Graham

“If there had been that amount of net profit available, I’d be very surprised if there hadn’t been 1000 other developers who would have figured that out as well,” he said.

He said the council was “very very confident it was the best price we could have achieved”.

Suspended Central Coast councillor Greg Best slammed the council’s 2021 sale, describing it as “the sale of the century”.

“The developers have sold 25 lots for $120m, however that was just the initial stage,” he said.

“All up there’s about 60 lots with more to come online when infrastructure goes in.

“It’s the great land giveaway and a bad decision for council to dump this land on the market in a fire sale way. Council promised they would not fire sale our assets. There’s no question that this has been fire saled.”

Mr Best said the former Wyong Council bought the land for $10m and it was supposed to be a “catalyst” to attract business to the Central Coast.

Central Coast Council CEO David Farmer said the sake

He said the council could have entered a public/private venture to benefit from the land.

“This has been a huge windfall for the developer,” he said.

Council’s chief executive officer David Farmer said “what they bought was a paddock with no services”.

“What they have sold off the plan are serviced industrial lots so there’s enormous costs in getting those services water, power, gas, communications under the M1,” he said.

“It’s a bit like saying I sold them the steel and they made a car. There’s a significant difference in price.”

The former Wyong Council voted to sell the site in 2015 and while it was previously under contract in 2020, the sale did not go through.

Winarch Capital’s website states that there are 69 lots to be sold across four stages at Warner Business Park, located on 86.43ha of land.

The Express has contacted Winarch Capital for comment.