Council-linked developer puts shops on market months after contentious decision
Taking advantage of the council’s decision to cancel a rival project, the owners of a Brisbane bayside shopping center are now selling the “blue chip” site.
Redland Bay Village, which is billed as the only full-service supermarket in the area, is part-owned by local developers Fox and Bell.
Redland City Council, whose chief executive has family ties to the firm, abandoned plans late last year for a $250 million development that would have surrounded a Coles store about a kilometer away.
Don O’Rorke, managing director of sidelined developer Consolidated Properties Group (CPG), had questions about the decision: first reported by this masthead earlier this monthand it comes after deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie criticized the change in a letter to the mayor of Redland.
Following Bleijie’s intervention, O’Rorke said CPG won the job in an open municipal tender in 2023 and was on time and on budget.
In a statement to this imprint, O’Rorke said the decision left no competition for Fox and Bell-linked Woolworths, which he said were in the market.
At the time, Fox and Bell director Garry Hargrave did not publicly confirm the sale but said the issue was “not relevant” to the council’s decision.
Hargrave initially declined to disclose figures on Fox and Bell’s interest in the center as part owners, but later said in an email that the “majority of the center” was not on his land.
The firm was not concerned about the impact of a shopping center on Weinam Creek, but Hargrave said he raised issues with the development with the city.
This week, Redland Bay Village was officially listed by commercial property company JLL, which claims the centre’s full-service Woolworths anchor tenant is “the only supermarket serving the immediate commercial area”.
Woolworths is said to be secured with a gross annual rent of $1.78 million, with “built-in rent escalation through turnover-related review mechanisms”.
The council was told in 2013 that Weinam Creek needed a larger store, such as one on one of the islands, and the plans for Coles come eight years after the area was approved as a priority development area by the state in 2014.
Weinam Creek is the only docking point for ferries from the rapidly growing population of the Southern Moreton Bay Islands.
Plans for this supermarket are in place in 2022, with CPG selected to deliver the Weinam Creek project and much-needed multi-storey car park for islanders who have vehicles on the mainland.
Work was due to start later this year for completion in 2028, but the council and councilor Shane Rendalls, who initiated the vote, suggested the CPG project was about fast-tracking the car park, which will now be built by the state without adjoining shops.
The council’s chief executive, Louise Rusan, has family links to Fox and Bell chief executive Greg Bell; This is a conflict of interest registered with the council.
Following the news of this article, Bell told the local media outlet: Redland Bayside News she and Rusan never discussed council matters and only saw each other at family events.
He argued that the chief executive had the authority to make any decision, overriding a conflict of interest.
“Councillors make development decisions; that is not the CEO’s job,” he told the newspaper.
In response to a question from this byline, Hargrave said no one from Fox and Bell tried to influence council members or Rusan on the decision.
A spokesperson for Redland City Council has repeatedly said Rusan’s conflict of interest was managed under appropriate governance processes.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter for the Brisbane Times covering state politics and public services. He previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
