The owners of a Brisbane bayside shopping centre who benefited from a council decision to cancel a rival project are now selling the “blue chip” site.
Billed in sale material as the only full-line supermarket in the area, Redland Bay Village is part-owned by local developers Fox and Bell.
Redland City Council, whose chief executive has family ties to the firm, late last year ditched plans for a $250 million development, anchored by a Coles store, about a kilometre away.
Questions raised about the decision by the sidelined developer, Consolidated Properties Group (CPG) chief executive Don O’Rorke, were first reported by this masthead earlier this month, and came after deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie criticised the change in a letter to the Redland mayor.
After Bleijie’s intervention, O’Rorke said CPG had won the work in an open 2023 council tender and was on time and budget.
In a statement to this masthead, O’Rorke said the decision left no competition for the Fox and Bell linked Woolworths, which he said was on the market.
At the time, Fox and Bell principal Garry Hargrave would not publicly confirm the sale, but described the question as “not relevant” to the council’s decision.
Hargrave initially declined to disclose Fox and Bell figures’ interest in the centre as part-owners, but later said in an email the “majority of the centre” was not on its land.
The firm was not concerned about the impact of a shopping centre at Weinam Creek, but Hargrave said he had raised issues with the council over the development.
This week, the Redland Bay Village was formally listed by commercial real estate company JLL, touting the centre’s full-line Woolworths anchor tenant as “the only supermarket servicing the immediate trade area”.
Woolworths is said to be secured with a $1.78 million gross annual rent with “built-in rental growth via turnover-linked review mechanisms”.
In 2013, the council was told Weinam Creek needed a larger shop as did one of the islands, and the plans for the Coles came eight years after the area was confirmed as a priority development area by the state in 2014.
Weinam Creek is the only docking point for ferries from the rapidly growing Southern Moreton Bay Islands population.
Plans for that supermarket were put in place in 2022, with CPG picked to deliver the Weinam Creek project as well as a much needed multi-level car park for islanders who own vehicles on the mainland.
Work had been due to begin later this year for completion in 2028, but the council and councillor who initiated the vote, Shane Rendalls, has maintained nixing the CPG project was about fast-tracking the car park, which will now be built by the state without the adjoining shops.
The council’s chief executive Louise Rusan has a family link to Fox and Bell managing director, Greg Bell – a conflict of interest registered with the council.
Following this masthead’s reporting, Bell told local media outlet The Redland Bayside News he and Rusan never discussed council matters and only saw each other at family events.
He disputed the chief executive had any decision-making power, nullifying the conflict of interest.
“Councillors make development decisions – that’s not the CEO’s role,” he told the paper.
In response to a question from this masthead, Hargrave said nobody from Fox and Bell had sought to influence councillors or Rusan over the decision.
A Redland City Council spokesperson has repeatedly said Rusan’s conflict of interest was managed under the appropriate governance processes.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics and the public service. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
