By Brendan Rees
Casey Council has backed down on its plan to contribute $2m to transform a former betting ring at Cranbourne Racecourse into a 1400-seat convention centre after citing “financial pressures”.
In May last year, then Casey councillors voted to provide funding to Cranbourne Turf Club which was to be sought from a land sale at 22-40 O’Tooles Road, Cranbourne.
At the time, Casey Council hoped the investment would return the $2m through reduced venue hire for Casey-based not-for-profit organisations and other council functions over a 10-year period.
The centre was proposed to operate separately from the racing centre, with its own access from Grant Street, to allow private functions to be run on race days.
The project was tipped to be completed in September last year and create about 185 jobs during construction and a further 295 jobs on an ongoing basis.
However, Casey Council has since “reconsidered” the grant due to the Covid-19 pandemic placing “considerable financial and service pressures” on council.
Council documents revealed negotiations had been undertaken, however, no agreement had been reached.
At a council meeting on Tuesday 21 April, Casey Council administrator Noelene Duff said council would be withdrawing its $2m contribution to the $6.5m convention centre as council was “now in quite a different situation with respect to our financial circumstances”.
“I’m of the view that the community really is not in a position to support this $2m proposal to invest in a site and a facility that is not owned by council when we have a range of other priorities,” she said.
Ms Duff agreed with council officers’ recommendation that the grant was “no longer a priority for Casey City Council”, adding the proposed agreement was a “relatively unusual request” but one that was “ultimately supported” in May last year.
The $2m will now be redirected to priorities identified in the forthcoming 2020-21 council budget.
Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive Neil Bainbridge said the club was “very disappointed” with council’s decision which would be a “significant setback” to the project.
“We respect council’s decision and we’ll continue to see what options are available to us but it’s going to be very difficult,” he said.
He said the club had begun “making a number of plans to be able to bring to life a large scale function and event centre which is sorely missing in Casey,” adding it would have been an opportunity for the region to host events.
The Cranbourne Turf Club holds about 100 non-race day functions and events per year, including valedictories and multicultural events, and the club anticipated that this figure was only going to increase following the establishment of the Cranbourne convention centre.
Mr Bainbridge said without the $2m grant it would be “difficult for the club to proceed the project of that scale and size”.
Last year the State Government committed to providing a $4.95 million loan to the Cranbourne Turf Club for the new convention centre.
