Rottnest Island Resort Fails to Sell Again
“Hotel development is a very high-risk business and one has to approach it with great foresight and great rigour in financial analysis and risk mitigation,” she told the AFR. “It is absolutely critical that when one looks at terms of the lease agreement and terms of the development agreement, they are fair and reasonable and make commercial sense.”
Governing body the Rottnest Island Authority (RIA) currently controls the site. It is considered responsible for in 2009 stalling a campaign that started in 2007 to sell the asset to a consortium led by Broadwater Hotels, which said the RIA tried to shift risk to it.
Ms Paspaley, who wanted to develop a $70 million 120-room resort and conference facility on the island, said she had been pushing to expand food and beverage offerings to make the project viable.
Pinctada was prevented from going further, it is reported, until the whole project had been signed off.
“If I can only do that afterwards when I am the confirmed proponent, to me it seems a false way around the issue,” she said.
Kim Hames, the state’s Tourism Minister, told the AFR the government hopes to revisit the issue to see if there are “changes that need to be made”.
Visitor numbers at Rottnest Island were down 15 per cent in winter, and ballots submitted for summer accommodation were down as well.
