Macquarie Point staff move out of refurbished offices and lease the site to private tenants, including one with a board connection

Macquarie Point Corporation staff have vacated the office that received an $850,000 refurbishment and leased the site to private tenants in a deal that ‘stinks’, says the ALP.

The now former office of the Macquarie Point Development Corporation, which benefited from a total of $850,000 in refurbishment. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

AFTER spending $850,000 refurbishing their office over the past several years, Macquarie Point Development Corporation staff have relocated to a new office space.

The former office has now been leased to two private companies — including one which was founded by a recent MPDC board member.

In 2013, the Evans St office, a former TasRail building, received a $620,000 refurbishment, which then MPDC chief executive Elizabeth Jack said represented a saving compared with the long-term rental costs of similar office space elsewhere over the life of the project. The then Liberal Opposition criticised the refurbishment as “expensive waste”.

Designed by local firm Tim Penny Architecture + interiors, the project was entered in the 2014 Tasmanian Architecture Awards for interior architecture — and in 2016 it underwent another makeover, this time at a cost of $230,000. A spokesman for the MPDC said at the time the renovation was needed because of increasing staff numbers.

A spokeswoman told the Mercury this week that Corporation staff had recently moved into the former TOLL offices located within the refurbished Goods Shed at Macquarie Point — which itself had a $1 million refurbishment designed to support events and concerts. The Goods Shed will remain a permanent element of the site’s masterplan.

The reason for the move was said to be for the purpose of getting a strong rental return on the old office building.

The Goods Shed at the Macquarie Point site. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

The building has been leased to workplace training company AJL Training and Matrix Management Group Pty Ltd, the latter of which was founded by former MPDC board member Glenda Sorrell, who remains the project management and quantity surveying firm’s managing director.

Her appointment to the board was announced in a media release by then State Growth Minister Peter Gutwein in November last year. In the same release it noted that appointments to the MPDC board were for three years.

The Corporation spokeswoman said Ms Sorrell was no longer a board member and it is understood her resignation occurred prior to the signing of the lease of the office.

“The Corporation can’t comment on why a board director chooses to resign — that is up to the former director,” the spokeswoman said.

Ms Sorrell was contacted for comment.

“The cost of renovating the former TOLL offices, which subsequently became the new Corporation office, was 7 per cent of the total refurbishment cost,” the Corporation spokeswoman said.

Labor’s spokesman for infrastructure, David O’Byrne, has in recent months been critical of the progress at Macquarie Point and has now called on the Premier to intervene.

“Will Hodgman needs to intervene in the Development Corporation and he needs to do it today.

“On the face of it, this stinks — and for once it’s not just the sewerage treatment plant that hasn’t moved after seven years.”