Council has a provisional agreement to sell all its land holding around the existing Salamander Bay Shopping Centre to a Tinkler Group company for $22.05 million, subject to negotiation and a lease-back deal for the sites of the Library and Community and Child Care Centres.  It remains unclear what stage negotiations have reached.

In December 2011, the Owner and Manager of the existing centre submitted a DA for an Aldi store in place of the existing Millers and GoLo stores next to K-mart.  This would be a better medium term outcome than Council’s original plan to sell Aldi a site on Salamander Way.

For the long term, TRRA wants to see development of the peninsula’s second major town centre, but with a forward looking Master Plan which integrates mixed uses including commercial, retail, residential and community, which is pedestrian friendly and manages traffic well, and which protects the environmental values of the parts of the site bordering the Mambo wetlands.  We remain hopeful that the Tinkler company will be willing to pursue this vision.

TRRA objected to the process through which the Council put the land up for sale which we think fails to ensure the best return to the community, both in dollar terms and in a good planning outcome.  Unfortunately the Department of Local Government advised that Council had not breached any requirements.