The Federal Golf Club’s $103 million development proposal continues to draw flak from sections of the community. Image: GDH.
The board of the Federal Golf Club has rejected claims from its former president that it was negligent and commercially naive in its bid to develop a retirement village on a section of the Red Hill course with Sydney developer MBark.
David Bain-Smith, who resigned over the club’s agreement with MBark, said in his representation to development applications for the $103 million project that the club would not achieve financial viability or receive any material improvement to its financial position.
He also said neither the government nor the community would benefit from the development.
But the board said in a statement to Region that it found his stance to be perplexing and contradictory given the strongly documented support he had shown for the club’s development proposal and new agreement with MBark prior to his resignation.
The board said that over the past six months, Mr Bain-Smith, as club president, had expressed several times his and the board’s strong and unanimous support for the development proposal.
It said that in March 2024, Mr Bain-Smith’s public representation on the club’s development applications included support for the development, stating, “It will achieve much-needed long-term financial viability for FGC while also addressing the protection of important environmental aspects”.
The principal design and outcomes of the development had not changed since this comment, the board said.
The board said that leading up to a general meeting of club members on 1 May 2024, Mr Bain-Smith sent a message to all members strongly seeking their support to enter into a new and better agreement for the club’s development proposal.
This message, signed by Mr Bain-Smith, stated that “the board strongly and unanimously supported” this new agreement, which was then overwhelmingly supported by members at the general meeting.
The board said the agreement did not change after this recommendation aside from a further improvement in the risk management structures to favour the club.
“The only change to the agreement financials between the club and Mbark in the seven days following the member vote, and before signing, was to cap the deconcessionalisaton and Lease Variation Charge share payable by the club,” the board said.
“This was previously uncapped in the documents voted on by the club members on 1 May 2024, and any amount above the cap will now need to be paid solely by Mbark.”
The board said both the environmental and residential amenity aspects of this development proposal had been subject to intensive technical and agency scrutiny over many years.
This resulted in strong protections in both the variation made to the ACT Territory Plan in 2023 and the current development application proposals.
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