Council calls for enforcement action to clean up unsightly building

Townsville City Council is calling on some of Australia’s rich listers to clean up an unsightly building in the CBD.

A render of what the former Dimmeys building in flinders St will look like after its refurbishment.

Townsville City Council is taking on a company whose shareholders include two of Australia’s richest men by enforcing a new unsightly building local law to clean up a large derelict property in the CBD.

But asset managers for the property, commonly referred to as Dimmeys Arcade, say they have been going in circles trying to secure building permits for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment.

At its December meeting, the council called on CEO Prins Ralston to enforce Local Law 8.

It is believed to be the first use of the law which carries penalties of up to $26,690 for people who fail to comply with compliance notices.

Deputy Mayor Mark Molachino said the council had been working with the property owners for a long time trying to get them to reactivate the site.

“We want it cleaned up. It’s disgusting down there at the moment. Visitors come to our CBD, they walk past that. People are defecating and urinating in that arcade,” Cr Molachino said.

The entrance to Dimmeys Arcade in Flinders St.

“All we want to do is get it cleaned up and we can’t seem to get that so the Mayor in the council meeting asked the CEO to activate Local Law 8 which is our unsightly building law.

“We’ll start working with those proponents a lot more closely, using that Local Law 8, to try and get them to do some work to clean it up so that residents and visitors don’t have to look at that.”

Dimmeys Arcade is a mostly disused property fronting Flinders and Sturt St with more than 5000sq m of floor area. A Chemist Warehouse trades in part of the site.

Records show the property is owned by a company whose shareholders include Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi, rich listers worth around $1.8bn each and founders of the Chemist Warehouse group which employs more than 17,000 people.

The Verrocchis own the $40m Morning Star Estate in Victoria including a 12ha vineyard, helipad and 1860s mansion. The Gances own a $30m residence in Toorak with six bedrooms, a marble foyer, library, heated swimming pool and tennis court.

A render of the Dimmeys building showing Anytime Fitness as the new tenant for the former Woolworths supermarket space on Sturt St.

National Retail Group has been acting as asset managers on behalf of the property owners and announced a $3m redevelopment of the Townsville site in early 2021 to include gym Anytime Fitness and retailer Skin Ski and Surf. Posters on the building say it will open in September 2021 but little looks to have been done apart from painted boarding erected on Sturt St.

NRG director Michael Spektor said the building had been stripped out and they had done as much as building permits would allow but they had been “going around in this process” to get permits for a new fire protection sprinkler system expected to cost $2m.

He said it had required working with building surveyors, engineers, designers, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and the council.

“We had to work with the council to ensure there was enough water pressure. That took a month to get confirmation that the pressure was sufficient,” Mr Spektor said.

“All we can do is to continue paying the bills and get this designed and permitted up and started. We have been working on this since mid-2020.

“Any suggestion we are not doing everything we can to try and get this permit through and get this work started is categorically false.”

Mr Spektor said if a permit was issued in January Anytime Fitness could be on site fitting out in April.

“I can’t give a guarantee on permits. It’s out of my control. The building surveyor reviews and issues the permit,” Mr Spektor said.

Originally published as Council calls for enforcement action to clean up unsightly building