Lendlease director of Australian development Tom Mackellar would not confirm the value of the additional floor space, saying “the numbers are commercially sensitive”.
Mackellar said the settlement allowed the developer to increase the height and width of its residential towers.
Former NSW Prime Minister Mike Baird said he was trying to balance the interests of the public, the state and developers in Barangaroo.Credit:Brook Mitchell
He said the agreement was in effect a compensation for project delays due to the dispute and any breach of the views of the development in Central Barangaroo – which was initially planned to be mid-rise.
Baird also told the investigation that no explicit commitment had been made regarding lines of sight.
“[The agreement] was that we would negotiate in good faith.”
Loading
He recalled a meeting with then-Crown Chairman James Packer in 2015 shortly before the government reached an agreement requiring it to negotiate with the companies over plans to develop Central Barangaroo.
Baird said the meeting was “fairly cordial” and that there was “limited discussion of sightlines”.
“There was fear about the time it had taken the government to address a range of issues [at Barangaroo]. I understand that, it is an important project.”
Labor MP Adam Searle said the settlement offered Lendlease “significant additional development opportunities”, wondering: “What exactly did the state get out of that settlement? I can see what Crown and Lendlease get out of it. I don’t see what NSW got out of it. what the state government gets out of it?”
Baird said there was a financial component and a public benefit associated with the metro station in Barangaroo.
Grocon CEO Daniel Grollo, whose company won the tender to develop Central Barangaroo before it went into administration in 2019, estimated the additional floor space was worth $300 million to Lendlease.Credit:James Brickwood
Former Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Tim Reardon couldn’t recall why the government did not go ahead with an appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision, instead of reaching a settlement with the companies.
“One consideration was that the state undoubtedly went to court and failed in that case.”
Reardon understood that the development benefits in the settlement were “clearly subject to planning approval.”
“It may not be common, but there are plenty of financial structuring deals over a long period of time where there are unusual arrangements to try and get a solution.”
Grollo, who is suing Infrastructure NSW, accused the government of “unreasonable” behavior in the Barangaroo negotiations and of “a perverse strategy of selling sightlines twice”.
“Sometime in early 2019, it was decided that Grocon was expendable.
“It’s not clear to me what the motivation is, other than a general view of greed,” Grollo said.
Earlier this month, former Crown boss Karl Bitar said he had encouraged the former Barangaroo Delivery Authority to compromise because no one at Crown “wanted it to become legal”.
Loading
“I think our hope, and the reason the negotiations dragged on for so long, was that we could find a solution, a win-win situation, that everyone could live with. Unfortunately we failed.”
Bitar said the views would have been of “substantial” value, as “Crown spent over $2 billion building this resort”.
“Part of the reason why [Crown and Lendlease] entered into the agreement with the BDA to try to protect those lines of sight was because those lines of sight were so valuable.”
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said Barangaroo was “wild west planning in NSW through unsolicited proposals, major proposals and the ridiculous number of changes we are dealing with”.
Our Breaking News Alert shall notify you of important news as it happens. Get it here.
The post NSW government handed lucrative perks to Crown, Lendlease in secret Barangaroo deal appeared first on WhatsNew2Day.