Homepage Silverfin Property Limited newsroom

Timaru council to ditch loss-making car park

Announcement posted by Silverfin Property Limited 05 Jul 2016

Timaru District Council plans to remove equipment from a loss-making car park at the end of the month.

The council paid $30,000 to lease the Central Mall car park in the last financial year but recouped just $19,350 in parking charges.

Councillors had feared an active lease would cost the council too much to cancel. The council's land transport manager, Andrew Dixon, said on Monday the car park's property management company, Silverfin Property, had not produced a current lease document.

"We asked for a copy and we didn't have one presented to us."

An earlier council report stated the lease had ended in 2012 but had continued on a monthly basis, and recommended the council exit the lease.

The report suggested attempts to renegotiate the agreement failed after representatives of the mall's owners demanded a $5000 increase in the lease despite clothing shop Glassons moving out of the Central Mall in 2014.

Responsibility for managing the car park changed from property managers Augusta two days after Timaru Central director Cheryl Macaulay was informed of the report.

Silverfin, of which Macaulay is also a director, took over the car park's management. Fellow Silverfin director Mark Perriam pledged to investigate whether an active lease existed or not.

Dixon said the pay and display meter in the car park would likely be used for spare parts. The meter was "on its last legs anyway" because the council had deferred replacing it while the lease was in question.

The council would put a metal parking sign and a height barrier in storage and sell them for scrap if no use for them could be found.


The car park's owners could face further challenges after the council leaves. The report stated the car park might need earthquake strengthening and its markings needed repainting.

The largely untenanted mall beneath could also face competition from Silverfin's directors for tenants.

Macaulay is a director of Timaru Retail Project, the company behind the $10 million The Landing commercial development on Elizabeth St, and Perriam is the project manager.

He revealed on Wednesday the development, which is expected to be completed in 2016, had 577 square metres of untenanted retail and office space.

Original Source - Stuff