Proposed Parish Property Development
Information Exchange Documents
Information Exchange document no. 1
GREEN HILLS ANGLICAN PARISH
Proposed Parish Property Development
Information Exchange No. 1
The Parish Development Sub-Committee and Parish Council together with Corrin Matthews, have been meeting with the Diocesan Property Development Group as well as other Diocesan groups including Anglicare, to look at property development options for the Parish property. There are a number of options that would be well aligned with our Mission goals for the Parish, including disability accommodation, day respite care, residential accommodation for child safety, aged care and indigenous support, however, of these, we have found that:
* There currently aren’t any Diocesan opportunities for these activities;
* These options would require substantial capital input raised by the Parish as a loan; and
* Many of these options are not financially particularly rewarding.
The Diocesan Property Group has put to us that child care may be the best and highest development option to be constructed on the property at 181 Wardell Street i.e. in the area currently occupied by the Parish Office and car park. Preliminary information seems to indicate that the demographics of the area would support a child care facility at this location, however, further research is required to confirm this. This would involve the Parish establishing a long term lease with an external operator who would build and operate the facility. The Parish would collect lease money from the operator.
Whilst a child care centre is not our preferred option in terms of developing our Parish Mission, firming up our financial position in the short to medium term is essential to our survival. As a Parish Council, it is our view that development of a child care centre on part of our property would allow us to stabilise our finances to a point where we can pursue other development activities on our properties in the longer term, that are more consistent with our Parish Mission goals.
The next step in the process would be to agree and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Parish and the Diocese which would allow us to further explore the child care centre option. It does NOT make the child care centre development a fait accompli, but it does commit both the Parish and the Diocese to undertaking further analysis of the need for and practical constraints of a child care centre and from there, develop a business case to progress (or not).
Timeframe:
Some very broad timeframes have been provided to us by the Diocese for the child care centre development as follows:
Development of a business case 6-12 months
Design and construction 12-18 months
Ramp up time possibly 12 months
Before this project advances much further, and we have identified several potential ‘project killers’ which must be explored before our time and financial commitment becomes too great, including firmly establishing whether there is a need for a child care centre at this location, whether air quality issues associated with the presence of the service station on the opposite side of Wardell Street would preclude the operation of a child care centre and whether or not the telco tower (which currently brings the Parish $21,492 in income per annum) could remain.
There is a long way to go with this proposal, but every journey must start with the first step and based on our current financial position, we must start taking steps to better utilise our property assets to support our income. An essential part of this journey is to ensure that all Parishioners understand what we are proposing to investigate and have the opportunity to ask questions and provide opinions. At this stage, specific information is sparse and all we are looking to pursue is to establish an MOU with the Diocese that will allow further analysis of the establishment of a child care centre and assess whether there is a sound business case for it. We are committed to keeping the wider Parish informed as we progress.