Failed deal on the Derwent Entertainment Centre could have been avoided
HYDRAPLAY owner Justin Hickey has declared he would have forked out $4 million for the Derwent Entertainment Centre had he not been kept in the dark by the Glenorchy City Council.
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HYDRAPLAY owner Justin Hickey has declared he would have forked out $4 million — the lowest figure from the valuer-general for the Derwent Entertainment Centre — had he not been kept in the dark by the Glenorchy City Council.
Negotiations between the two parties ended on Monday when the council rejected HydraPlay’s offer for the DEC in what it described as “totally inadequate”.
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The Mercury understands the valuer-general’s market valuation — which was requested by the HydraPlay consortium when talks on a potential deal stagnated — came in at about $4 million.
A source close to the council also told the Mercury the official offer was “about the price of a quality home in Battery Point or less than half the lowest valuation made available”.
But Hickey, who along with business partner Mike Sutton was hoping to buying the DEC as a home for Tasmania’s potential NBL side the Southern Huskies, has slammed the council’s handling of their discussions.
“We were trying to buy a complex business and when you enter into buying a business, or buying a car or buying a house, you have always got to be able to look under the hood,” Hickey said.
“They didn’t afford us any of that ability and we had been crying out for it for four months, in multiple emails, in multiple meetings.
“It [the price] wouldn’t have been an issue at all here. We were committing to spend millions of dollars upgrading the joint.
“Obviously the valuer-general has valued it at $4 million, or $4.4 or whatever, obviously he is doing it on the conservative basis and there is obviously some value to it.
“But how are we supposed to buy something and have the confidence to buy something as complex as that without seeing any maintenance schedules, without seeing any historical or upcoming bookings, without seeing any defects, without seeing audited figures for five years?
“These are all the things you tick off if you actually are serious about selling a business.”
Today we are going to try and answer some of the questions that we received through social media and via email:
— Southern Huskies (@SouthernHuskies) October 31, 2018
1. How much was the offer?
We aren't releasing that information currently. We... https://t.co/MPNVz5wg5f
Hickey said HydraPlay would not resubmit an offer now the council had decided to put the building on the open market and would instead pursue alternate options, revealing he had already held several discussions about purchasing land and building a new stadium.
And while the state’s hopes of obtaining the 10th NBL licence in the coming years appears unlikely, Hickey said it was not the end of the Huskies.
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“We are forging ahead … there are things in the pipeline that we will now work on.”
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