Darwin council look to mall for relocation after $14.6 million sale of Cavenagh St car park

A MOVE to the Smith St mall could be on the cards for Darwin council’s chambers and CBD library thanks to the sale of the Cavenagh St parking lot

Darwin council will look to relocate their chambers to Smith St mall thanks to the $14.6 million sale of the Cavenagh St car park. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

A MOVE to the Smith St mall could be on the cards for Darwin council’s chambers and CBD library thanks to the sale of the Cavenagh St parking lot.

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said the $14.6 million received in the sale of the car park, which would allow construction on the CDU city campus to begin this year, would be reinvested into council facilities.

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Funds from the city deal would be put into projects to stimulate the local economy with the mall earmarked as a possible new home for council.

“Bringing more of Council’s community services such as rangers and the library into a more central location will activate our CBD and create pedestrian traffic for our retailers and improve safety – it will mean more security presence,” he said.

“The new location will improve accessibility, meaning we can better serve our community.”

Mr Vatskalis said council’s current facilities had aged over time and were in need of a upgrade to adhere to updated safety standards, while relocation of council chambers would also include customer services and ranger services.

While the focus had been put on the proposed city campus, he said the city deal would look after the entire CBD through a number of projects.

“The city is not only the university, it is State Square, the laneways and other things, the good thing out of this sale is the University can go ahead next year,” Mr Vatskalis said.

“Council now will use this money to upgrade some of the facilities that don’t comply with health standards, fire standards and accessibility standards, we will have a number of projects in the city because of that sale.”

While not officially a part of the City Deal, Mr Vatskalis said the relocation of council facilities would compliment the state square and CDU developments.

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The works within the city and to relocate council facilities will roll out over the coming months, firstly through an expression of interest process that will target local businesses to continue to transform the CBD and build on the $3.7 million Daly Street beautification project that is already underway and due to be completed this financial year.