THE council's decision to reject a car park funding request appears to be the death knell for the Bathurst Integrated Medical Centre (BIMC).
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On Tuesday, June 25, Bathurst council revealed it and the BIMC group had been unable to reach an agreement on the provision of car parking spaces and their cost.
Mayor Jess Jennings said the final offer was rejected due to the increased financial cost implications to ratepayers, along with inadequate parking spaces for the Bathurst community.
The Western Advocate received a statement on behalf of the BIMC group at 9pm on Tuesday, in which the group said it would not be lodging a development application (DA) for the project "in the foreseeable future".
According to the group, Bathurst Regional Council (BRC) required 740 car spaces to be built in the George Street car park.
The funding for that number of spaces could not be found, it said, adding that funding for 570 car spaces had been substantially agreed to.
BIMC itself was prepared to inject $7 million for its required 170 car parks, of which 100 would be available to the general public.
"It has taken us four years, over 1800 pages from around 40 independent experts and numerous meetings with BRC, community groups and NSW Planning to get us to a position where we were ready to lodge the development application," the group said.
"The interested parties were unable to reach agreement with BRC on the funding required to support the additional 170 general spaces required by BRC, which would have been owned and controlled by BRC.
"In addition to footing the bill for the design costs of the car park, BIMC had agreed to inject $7 million for its requirement of 170 car parks - a figure some $2 million above the estimated cost."
The group thanked the Bathurst community for its support of the project, which was first announced in December, 2020.
"We are extremely grateful to the Bathurst community for their enormous support for the project, the proposed tenants for their patience and support over the four years and our project manager, Zauner Construction," the group said.
Cr Jennings said the council had made every effort to support the BIMC project.
This included providing the land area necessary for the car park at no cost to the developer, despite it being valued "conservatively" at over $3 million.
The council was also prepared to contribute $5 million of ratepayers' money towards the construction of the car park, and had amended the height restrictions to make way for the six-storey integrated medical centre and four-storey car park.
Cr Jennings said this "conservatively amounts to a commercial real estate gain over $10 million for three extra floors".
Rachel Chamberlain
I have been a journalist at the Western Advocate since 2014.
I have been a journalist at the Western Advocate since 2014.
