March 20, 2013
The South Burnett Regional Council will call tenders for the sale of Communication House in Wondai unless a community group can propose a worthwhile alternative use for the building.
The Mackenzie Street property was formerly owned by Wondai Shire Council and became part of the SBRC’s property portfolio in the 2008 council amalgamations.
For many years it had been used as a “business incubator” to help new Wondai businesses get established.
Tenants have included IT companies, signwriters, publishers and photographers.
South Burnett CTC also currently lease the back part of the lot and have a demountable building on it.
At today’s Council meeting, councillors heard the property is now surplus to the SBRC’s current requirements but if it chooses to keep it then a maintenance and upgrade program will need to be developed.
Council staff said no significant maintenance had been undertaken on the building for several years.
The current book value of the property is $50,000 for the land and $150,000 for the building.
Councillors heard that preliminary interest had been by expressed by a business interested in purchasing the site.
If Council sold it, the land could be subdivided to allow CTC to continue to access their facility.
Cr Debra Palmer said because Council had no use for the property and there had been an expression of interest in it, the best thing to do would be to call for tenders to see if there were other people who’d like to buy it, too.
Cr Cheryl Dalton said while she broadly agreed with the proposal, Council should also be open to accepting lower bids if a community group put up a worthwhile suggestion for using the building that would benefit Wondai.
She said Communication House had contributed a lot to the development of the town over many years and if a way could be found to use the property to continue doing that, she’d be very happy.
The motion to call for tenders passed unanimously.
