PLANS for a shopping centre at Estella have hit a brick wall amid claims finance for the project is being held back unnecessarily.
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“We are ready to go, but the bank is making us jump through unnecessary hoops,” said Grant Harris, principal/director of Raine and Horne Real Estate and spokesman for the developer.
“It’s frustrating to get to this point and not get the support.”
Mr Harris said the developer had been negotiating a loan with ANZ.
“We are trying to be loyal to the ANZ, but they are being difficult,” he said.
“We are now looking at different funding options because the community out there is screaming for it (the shopping centre).”
The proposed shopping centre, on the corner of Avocet and Rainbow drives, has been mooted for years, but each positive step forward has invariably been followed by a delay.
It is unclear what is behind the ANZ’s position, but Mr Harris said the project had sound loan security as well as being a good investment.
“If I was a bank I would be keen to lend into it,” Mr Harris said.
The project includes a supermarket as anchor tenant, Chemist Warehouse as a major tenant and plans for a takeaway food shop, a butchery, a hair and beauty salon and other retailers.
“We can’t lock and load (the tenancies) until we have the finance, but we don’t have that because of the bank,” Mr Harris said.
Although the Chemist Warehouse agreement has a sunset clause in it, Mr Harris said he was not worried at this time about the possibility of losing tenants.
“We want to do it, we want it to happen, he (the developer) has invested a lot of time, effort and money in getting to this point and we are not going to give up,” Mr Harris said.
Mr Harris said a “line in the sand” would have to be drawn in the new year. “After that, we will be looking elsewhere (for finance),” he said.
The president of the Estella Progress Association, Graham Cotter, said the constant setbacks and change of scheduling was frustrating.
“The delays are a bit disheartening,” Mr Cotter said.
ANZ said it could not comment on specific customer details, but said it took a prudent approach to lending and assessed each opportunity on a case by case basis to make sure it was meeting its regulatory responsibilities, operating within its risk appetite and doing the right thing by the customer.