Grand Central Towers in Woden. The coming of light rail was a key part of its marketing. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Advertising for the 430-unit Grand Central Towers development in Woden spruiking its proximity to the future light rail line and station has been found to be misleading, deceptive and false.
ACT Supreme Court Justice AJ Curtin found in a judgment handed down on Thursday that much of the 2018 promotional material had conveyed that the light rail project had been approved and the location of the Woden stop had been decided.
In 2019, the ACT Commissioner for Fair Trading launched proceedings against the joint developers of Grand Central Towers, Geocon and Zapari, and associated companies.
Grand Central Towers is now a part of the Woden skyline but light rail is a long way down the track, if ever, given the Canberra Liberals have promised to can Stage 2B if they win government today.
The promotional material consisted of two billboards, a 36-page brochure, flyer, video and emails.
The Commissioner argued the advertising conveyed to would-be buyers that the extension of light rail to Woden Town Centre had received planning approval, that it would stop next to the development, that the travel time from the City on the light rail would be under 10 minutes and/or that the frequency would be every five minutes.
Justice Curtin said the underlying premise of the Commissioner’s case was that the claims in the promotional material allowed higher prices to be obtained from the sale of the units than if they had not been made.
He described the contents of the billboards as “half-truth”.
They included a photograph of the proposed development, with the words “YOUR CANBERRA METRO TERMINAL STOPS HERE”, above a colour image of a red Canberra Metro light rail vehicle.
“The message conveyed by the billboards went further than a ‘proposal’,” Justice Curtin said.
“There were no qualifying words or images on the billboards which conveyed that the light rail, and the position of the light rail stop, was ‘proposed’ rather than certain.
“In my view what was being conveyed to the reasonable consumer by the billboards was that light rail to Woden, and a light rail terminal at, adjacent or proximate to the development, was definitely or certainly going to occur.”
The brochure’s express words “with the approval of Stage 2 of the light rail” and “1 minute to Woden bus terminal & Future Light Rail Terminal” together with the photographs, images and maps “conveyed to the reasonable consumer that, as far as the necessary approval process was concerned, every necessary approval had been granted,” Justice Curtin said.
A one-minute travel time between the development and the light rail terminal necessarily implied that the light rail terminal would be close by.
Justice Curtin said a disclaimer in the brochure was utterly ineffective.
The defendants contended that there were reasonable grounds for claiming these things would happen in the future but Justice Curtin said commitment from the ACT Government to extend light rail to Woden did not amount to certainty.
“The simple point was that the construction of Stage 2B may not have eventuated because it may not have secured one of the necessary approvals, or an unknown technical restraint was discovered, or the Liberal opposition won either or both of the October 2020 or 2024 elections,” he said.
The matter will return to court at a future date.
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