THE removal of a land management agreement could alleviate the financial woes of the Mount Gambier Community Returned and Services League if a formal application is approved by Mount Gambier City Council.
The embattled RSL, the oldest and largest in the state, was forced to put its Sturt Street premises up for sale in June – only a month out from its July 15 centenary celebrations.
Struggling to repay a debt of around $2.5m, president Bob Sandow said the sale of the league’s Ferrers Street car park could keep the iconic institution afloat.
“We have been working with council to have the land management agreement on our Ferrers Street car park removed since July last year,” Mr Sandow told The Border Watch.
“The chap who owns the Spotlight car park made an offer to purchase the land but council wouldn’t accept it, so we have continued to negotiate to have the agreement lifted.
“We could probably sell the car park for around $250,000 if the agreement was removed.”
Mr Sandow said the adjacent land used as an extension of the RSL museum and home to an armaments display could also be sold for a significant profit.
“If we were to sell both the Ferrers Street car park and the land on the corner where the tanks are displayed we could clear one debt from the bank,” he said.
“It would give us the money to keep trading here and hold our head up with our creditors – cash flow is tight.”
The not-for-profit organisation has battled plunging membership numbers and a zero profit margin over the last five years.
City Council chief executive Mark McShane said while the additional car park was a condition of the league’s 2009 redevelopment, council would consider a formal request for the removal of the land agreement.
“To remove the agreement is a two step process – firstly the RSL will need to lodge a variation to the development approval which considers the additional car park, which was a condition of the redevelopment, is no longer required,” Mr McShane explained.
“They will need to support that variation and the application will be processed by the Development Assessment Panel, which is independent from council – council has no control over the outcome there.”
“The second step will be to make a request to council for the removal of the land agreement.”
Mr McShane said council had outlined the process to the RSL in a number of meetings and provided the details in writing.
“Right now we are waiting on the RSL to lodge the variation,” he said.
Mr Sandow said the RSL had commissioned a report from a planning consultant to submit to city council.
Meanwhile, he said the league’s turnaround strategy was in full swing.
“We have leased the bistro to a chef and his wife from Adelaide who started in the kitchen last week – they believe they will make money for us,” Mr Sandow said.
“Looking at their first week and the improvement in the consistency of the food here I think it will happen.
“The building will go on the market on the condition we have right of renewal to lease it back – we didn’t want to sell the building but we have no choice at the moment.”
Mr Sandow said the community had rallied behind the faltering establishment.
“We have picked up 150 members in the last few weeks and our 100 year celebration was very popular – we had great bar sales on the night,” he said.
“Richard Sage rang me last week and said ‘Bob, can I give you a little bit of money for the anniversary dinner on Saturday night?’
“He said ‘it won’t be much,’ but it was enough to fund the band from Adelaide and feed them while they were here for the weekend – it was excellent.”
