Features
1400 Sunshine Coast jobs in limbo
Rebecca Marshall 15th December 2009
Miranda Kerr models for David Jones.
LEND Lease has not yet lodged a development application for the proposed David Jones store at Sunshine Plaza, placing a large black and white question mark over the project’s future.
The retail giant, which had once been mooted as an anchor tenant at the Big Top, announced its preference to build a $15 million store at the Plaza in May last year.
Construction was meant to begin this year, creating 1400 jobs, with the doors set to open in 2012.
“We have a contracted position with Lend Lease, on behalf of the owners of the Sunshine Plaza, in terms of the location of the store and the delivery date,” David Jones’ group general manager of retail development Antony Karp said.
“I am unsure as to the progress that Lend Lease and the local council are making.
“Our original thinking was that the planning process would be further advanced than it currently is. But contractually, it’s an issue for Lend Lease and we hope there is an agreement soon.
“We are still looking forward to opening in the third quarter of 2012.”
David Jones CEO Mark McInnes told the company’s AGM on November 30 that the Sunshine Plaza store was one of four “high value, new stores” it proposed to open as part of its financial year 2009–12 strategic plan.
Council’s manager of planning assessment, Michael Bismire, said the ball was in Lend Lease’s court and they had not yet lodged a compliant development application.
“This council hasn’t received a DA from Lend Lease that identifies a location for David Jones on the Sunshine Plaza site at this point in time,” Mr Bismire said.
“The announcement was made by Lend Lease that they had secured David Jones for the site, but we’ve had no application from Lend Lease to follow through on.
“They have had an application in with council for over two years (for a previous round of Plaza extensions), but that predates their arrangement with David Jones.”
Mr Bismire said council last met with Lend Lease a few months ago, but no approach had been made to modify the existing DA or submit a new one naming David Jones.
“No one is under any illusions about what needs to happen. It just hasn’t happened,” he said.
A Lend Lease spokesman said development of this scale took “time to realise”.
“(It) must be considerate of state government and council’s plan for Maroochydore as a Principal Activity Centre for the Sunshine Coast,” the spokesman said.
“The vision for Sunshine Plaza, which is to include the addition of a David Jones department store, is now being considered in the context of state government and council’s plan for the broader region and discussions will be further progressed once the anticipated plan is released in the New Year.
“We are committed to working with state government and council on realising a viable future for Sunshine Plaza and will continue to work with David Jones on delivering the region’s first David Jones department store.
“While we are cognisant of our obligations to David Jones, our objective is to deliver the right strategy for the region and we look forward to lodging a development application that accommodates David Jones’ requirements in the first half of 2010.”
The spokesman did not answer questions asking for specific reasons for the delay in lodging the DA, if the store would still open in the Plaza on time, and if Lend Lease’s possible purchase of Horton Park would affect it.
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Recent comments on this article
Intriguingly the proposed project, that does not even have a Development Application before council is unlikely to Create too many Jobs. The construction workers are already out there, and this is just another job. It must be hard to tell how many will get a run until a compliant DA is lodged. The store may add a number of positions for its operating staff, probably not a bad thing, but certainly less than 1400. Maybe less than 100. So my headline reads. 100 Jobs Go Begging as Lend Lease Struggles to get it's Development Application into Black and White.
lend lease haven't lodged the application yet?
goes well with the rest of the developers whinging about it all being councils' fault. maybe lend lease will get on the band wagon and blame council??
developers in germany are going great guns with a negative population growth rate. We are actually increasing in size and you still can't get it right
A Lend Lease spokesman said development of this scale took “time to realise”.
Yep, Time to realise that Lend Lease first and foremost has no obligation towards job creation in any region.
The obligation is towards shareholders only.
and whilst Council is cognisant of their obligation towards job creation, their objective is to deliver the right strategy for the region and they look forward to approving a suitably compliant development application that accommodates David Jones’ requirements in the first half of 2010.
Our place, our future.
Does Ipswich have a David Jones ?
And developers complain about the Council holding up development applicationd!
Perhaps the real reason for this delay is lack of finance due to the GFC.I hope David Jones have got substantial penalty clauses in their contract with Lend Lease.
Wasn't the second stage Of Noosa Civic expected to have a DJ's Store? Weren't the tenants in Stage 1 lured into leases with that promise?
So, they will be building two DJ's on the Sunshine Coast...I'd like to see that!!
I'm waiting with baited breath to find out from our development lobby how this is the fault of Council and everyone who lives in Noosa. They have managed to find a way of blaming them - and everyone else - for all the other wheels which have fallen off their More People...More Houses...More Jobs campaign.
Oh...and I hope Lend Lease get their act together. Many of us would love to see a DJ's store on the Coast.
Another dream. First the Big Top, then Horton Park, then DJ’s. That only leaves Emporio. What town plan do you see?
I can see people floating in on air pads over streets made from recycled egg cartons wearing wide brimmed hats and 200 sun block to protect themselves from 10ha of solar collectors lining the Wises Farm precinct. They can then sit down and watch the hover train make its way into the CMCOS station located up a 100m tower as we could never decide on where traditional train track went. Then each Christmas Megan Gale and Jennifer Hawkins would arrive by separate pedal powered council buses to battle it out in the traditional jelly wrestling tournament at the Sunshine Coast Cultural Centre which with the addition of some new bleachers can seat a crowd of 5,000 underprivileged locals who once worked in the area.
Ah, can't wait.
jboast, what a vision, so sustainable, but where are the nimby's?
Why would David Jones, an upmarket store, come to a lower-end market like Maroochydore?
Next they will be putting one in Logan.
Vanga
Where in the article did it say anything about lend lease winging that Council is taking too long to process the application?
No application has been made. Council is not to blame and no one has blamed them!
The article is all about the fact that the proposal for the store seems to have stalled and the reason is solely with the developer and the leese.
What a misleading headline, way to go SCD!
Lend Lease treat people, especially hard working coast residents very poorly indeed.
where did the magic figure of 1400 jobs come from- thin air? with no plans in place its a bit hard to figure out how many labour hours are required!
- Figures are based on estimates of construction jobs - Editor
Maybe Lend Lease is preccupied with its legal problems with the US government.
Cooroy_Kid from Cooroy Mountain
Yes they are going into Logan. More money to be made there then trying to sell banjos and donkey milking equipment in Cooroy Mountain area.
Raddish
(Upper-end of the Maroochydore Market)
thanks for clarifying editor- you didn't note it was an estimate in the article- and i am guessing there would be a larege error of margin in your "guess"
even better would have been finding a local tradie who has lost his home while hanging his future earnings on this project going ahead- did you have problems finding one out of the 1400?
ps limbo means "an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place."
given the project has not even been submitted to council, its hardly in limbo!
cooroy_kid... Sunshine Plaza is probably the main shopping centre on the coast and you have a huge market of people who would shop at a DJs there.
I mean, they have one at Garden City at Mt Gravatt and no Myers and they do well. Mt Gravatt is probably Brisbanes equivalent of Maroochydore, if that...
Good to see the old monkeys at it again, monkey see monkey do?
Why would lend lease rush their application after having their previous two at the plaza sent back to the drawing board on the premis that a CBD structure plan was imminent.
They can't lodge under Maroochy 2000 and the position paper is not a formal planning instrument. Not bad for 'developer ready by Dec 2008'
Thanks for that explanation Fatbuilt.
So you are saying that it IS actually the Council's fault?
What about Noosa ...where does it fit into this sorry tale of woe?
Disappointing and sensational headline. These were paper jobs, not real.
There is an endless story of proposals that go nowhere. It has more to do with speculative land development that any benefit for the community, and the Global Financial Crisis made many investors wary.
1400 "jobs" was dodgy when proposed. Developers always increase the benefit their proposal will bring by exaggearting the number of people involved in building by a factor of 2 or 5. The real permanent jobs are usually a tiny fraction of that number, and often match the loss of jobs in businesses down the road that fold.
It must be a quiet news day if the failure of a company to proceed with a proposal is news. This happens all the time.
Maroochy Council generously awarded Lend Lease a cool $200 million windfall by allowing them to turn a third of the golf course at the Hyatt Coolum into a housing tract. Is it too much to expect a few unsustainable jobs in return for our disenfranchised building workers?
Apparently the answer is yes according to that font of all wisdom in such matters, Fatbuilt.
Who cares what company is creating these jobs, 1400 jobs cannot be lost to this region. We need 1400 jobs and we need a David Jones. Has anyone considered that the reason LL have not lodged a DA is because this Council has not finished the Maroochydore CBD structure plan yet? They cannot possible blame the State Govt ... I have been hearing about a Maroochydore plan for about 10 years.
Time to pull your finger-out Council and stop the blame game.