A lease for a new luxury hot springs resort in the Point Nepean National Park has been quietly rushed through by the government in its final days before it entered caretaker mode.
The move has dismayed and confused opponents of the project, who weeks ago rallied at the site, lobbying the government to scrap the current proposal or at least take the issue to the state election.
The 50-year agreement covers 64 hectares of national park, including the site of an old quarantine station made up of more than 50 buildings overlooking the Mornington Peninsula coastline. A state government spokesman said all rent received from the site would be reinvested back into national parks.
The deal with Point Leisure Group, headed by developer Richard Schelmerdine, commences in July 2017, and marks the first lease signed off on under the Coalition’s drive to open up Victoria’s national parks to “eco-tourism”.
The developer’s vision to turn the site into a ” health and wellness retreat” comprising hot springs, a spa, a restaurant, a 108-room hotel, a conference centre, and a “wellbeing centre,” was released earlier this year.
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But if geothermal testing at the site finds it cannot support the hot springs proposal, an exit clause for the developer appears to have been built into the lease terms.
And the door has been left open to extending the lease beyond 50 years if the Point Leisure Group meets its $40 million plus works timeline within the first 20years of the lease, according to a snapshot of lease conditions.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said it was “confident in the availability of the geothermal resource,” and that insurance for the state had been built into the agreement. “This agreement will see $40 million saved in management and maintenance costs over the 50-year term as a result of having a viable commercial tenant on site ensuring upkeep and maintenance of all historic buildings,” he said.
Fairfax Media understands the lease agreement was signed early this week, with the only public notification appearing on the Department of Environment and Primary Industry’s website on Wednesday morning. A state government spokesman said the deal had been signed off before the government went into caretaker mode.
“It raises more questions than answers about this back-room deal,” said the Victorian National Park Association’s Matt Ruchel. “There is no mention of a bond for the tenant or how much rent the developer will pay, or any clear information on what will be the return to the taxpayers, or what benefit Parks Victoria will get.”
Opposition environment spokeswoman Lisa Neville said Labor would try to disallow the lease where possible if it gained power, but added that little information about the lease process had been released.
“The community had previously signed off on a masterplan that they felt fitted the footprint that was already there, protected the native vegetation from clearing, was sensitive to the values of Point Nepean National Park and we would go back to looking at that plan again,” she said.
As part of the lease conditions, the developer has also signed an agreement with the University of Melbourne for education facilities on the site, which has attracted $2 million in extra funding from the government, the DEPI site revealed.
Kate Baillieu, who championed a campaign to stop the Defence Department selling the land from 2002 to 2009 said: “To hand over such a significant chunk of our history and our long-fought-for national park to a terribly uncertain, ill-defined proposal by one developer is just distressing. “We won’t be resting on this.”
Point Leisure Group must now apply for water testing permits.
