Residents and property owners in a tight-knit coast community are imploring the estate’s developer to return to the negotiating table, after it shut the doors to a much-loved recreation club.
People within Ridges at Peregian Springs, have lost access to the local swimming pool, tennis courts, barbecue area and gym, after an agreement could not be reached with FKP/Aveo.
They had paid about $760 a year, via a Principal Body Corporate, to utilise the club’s amenities during a 10-year-agreement, while the estate grew – but the arrangement ended last month.
Many locals hoped a new deal would pave the way for the PBC to take over the management and operations of the club, and they could wear the costs associated with that.
But a vote to do that, among property owners, fell just short.
The seven subsidiaries within Ridges needed to vote yes, unanimously, for FKP/Aveo to transfer the club to the PBC.
Six voted yes, but the seventh was a tie.
The terms of the deal included the PBC agreeing to take on responsibility for the club (with property owners paying $790 a year), while the commercial rents from the café and office space would go to the developer for the next 30 years.
But it fell through, so the club doors were closed, property owners will save $760 a year and the developer can essentially do what it wants with the facility.
Concerned resident Fiona Ryall said it was a “shocking” outcome.
“We love the centre,” she said. “The aqua aerobics ladies have been in the pool for 10 years and there are a lot of retired people, widowers and cancer survivors who have created a community, and they were there twice a week for their health and mental wellbeing.
“There’s also a swim squad that’s been there 10 years, which has helped people improve their swimming and get over their fear of swimming. My kids, aged 3 and 6, learned to swim there.
“We’ve had mothers’ groups that meet there and there has been that many get-togethers and parties for kids there.”
Ms Ryall expected the popular café, attached to the club, to lose patrons.
“People usually go there after they go to the pool or gym, so they may not go there anymore,” she said.
Members of the community have met on occasions to express their concerns since the club’s doors were shut on September 23, while a petition to save the club landed 450 signatures within 48 hours and has increased to almost 1400.
Ms Ryall pleaded with the developer to strike a new deal with the PBC.
“We want another shot,” she said. “We want them to come back to renegotiate with us and not take it (the club) away from us.
“We’re appealing … (for) the developer to renegotiate, save their reputation and don’t leave the community hanging with nothing.
“This is our community hub. We want the developer to realise what they’ve got in their hands and not to take it away from us.”
Ms Ryall said there were about 1350 properties in the estate and many owners and residents didn’t even realise the club’s future was under threat “until it was too late”.
She added that many of them did not see an awareness campaign notification on social media and many of them did not read the monthly news booklet that’s delivered door to door.
“A lot of people have also come out and said there was miscommunication and far too much legal jargon,” she said.
“A lot of people didn’t get their voting papers and a lot of them didn’t get around to voting because the email had a lot of paperwork attached, that went to 600 pages, and people are too busy.
“There are also a lot of renters who had no idea what was going on because the voting papers went to their investor landlords elsewhere.
“But then (after the vote and the club’s closure) everyone finally got into an uproar and said ‘whoa, you can’t take the club away, we use it’.
“I don’t know if it was apathy, but people didn’t realise the significance of losing it.”
Ms Ryall said the proposed deal that failed to get through “wasn’t a great deal” but it was better than losing access to the club.
“It would have still paid off to agree to keep it, because we would have owned this asset worth millions of dollars,” she said.
‘Soul-destroying’ vote result
PBC chairman Roger Cook said the club’s closure was “disappointing on many different levels.”
“I’m sure the community really has no idea what’s gone on,” he said.
Mr Cook said the ‘no’ result was “soul destroying”.
“The whole thing fell over because of a tied vote in one subsidiary. It was heartbreaking”.
Mr Cook said there was a very low voter turn-out, with only about 20 per cent taking part.
“About 80 per cent of homes are owned by absentee investors – people in Sydney and Melbourne, with a portfolio of properties – who haven’t been here. A lot of owners don’t live here, and they don’t realise the impacts.”
Mr Cook, who voted yes, believed there were several reasons that some property owners voted no.
“It wasn’t a great deal,” he said. “I fully respect the owners who did their research and decided to vote no.
“There are some people who simply don’t use the facility and want to reduce their levies.
“There was also a group of people who didn’t want the developer to hang around for 30 years. We (the PBC) wouldn’t get rental income from the commercial areas, but we’d still have to maintain those areas.
“There was also a group of people who probably gambled on a no vote, to create this situation, to focus on a different way forward. I think they were quite blinkered, thinking that Sunshine Coast Council might come in to save the day.”
He was hopeful a new deal could be brokered with FKP/Aveo.
“If the body corporate is going to have the facility, we need a new offer from the developer, in different terms,” he said.
“But we have no information from them on what the next move is. Throughout the process they insisted there was no plan B.”
He said the PBC asked the developer to keep the doors open and extend the existing arrangement while they sorted something out, but was told there would be no extension and that FKP/Aveo was considering its position.
Sunshine Coast News approached the developer for comment but has not received a response.
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