The Catholic church has reiterated its determination not to sell its land on the prime Braddon site bounded by Currong, Donaldson and Cooyong Streets, despite the ACT Government marketing its adjacent public housing blocks.
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A Territory Plan variation has been approved for the entire block, spanning Ainslie Avenue to Donaldson Street, and the government-owned section, home to the ageing Currong and Allawah units, is to be auctioned in February. The rezoning boosts the value of the land significantly.
The Currong blocks are being demolished by the government at the moment, but the demolition of Allawah will be the responsibility of the new owners, a spokesman for Chief Minister Andrew Barr has confirmed.
The Catholic church owns the adjacent blocks, which have also been rezoned for high-density residential and commercial development.
The archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn owns the St Patrick's Church block on the corner and the neighbouring Favier House. The Catholic Bishops Conference owns the buildings at 63 Currong Street where it has its secretariat, and earlier this year bought the former Sisters of Mercy convent on the corner of Currong and Donaldson Streets. It also has the top floor of Favier House.
General secretary father Brian Lucas said the church was renovating the convent and would use it for offices. It had relocated Catholic Health from Deakin to the top floor of Favier House and would also move Catholic Social Services there from Curtin. The migrant and refugee office and church insurance offices would move into the refurbished convent.
Father Lucas said while he had been open to a "sensible proposal" from the government before 2013, "no one ever came back with any proposal, sensible or not sensible" and the church's decision not to sell remained.
"We are using those buildings for the purposes of the bishops conference and that's the plan into the future," he said. "We use those properties for church purposes and that's the immediate intention."
Financial administrator of the archdiocese Helen Delahunty was equally adamant this week that the group had no plans to sell its two sites - St Patrick's Church and Favier House..
"We're not selling, there's absolutely no plans to do anything with that property," she said.
The Territory Plan change had no impact. "To be honest it doesn't make any difference to us, because were not doing anything," she said. "We're using the church as a church, using the office building as an office building ... We're trying to hold on to assets, not get rid of them."
The church successfully challenged a heritage protection order over the church in 2013, but not because it had plans to sell, she said.
"The reality of it is if you have property that's heritage listed you can't do anything with it. If we decided we want to knock that church down and build a bigger church we wouldn't be able to," she said. "To have a heritage listing on a building that we're in charge of is too much of a financial impost on us."
An ACT government spokesman said the Land Development Agency had submitted an estate development plan which would allow whoever bought the neighbouring Currong and Allawah block to subdivide it. The buyer could choose to use those plans tor develop their own, he said.
The Territory Plan change had included the church site "to provide a cohesive planning framework for future renewal of the Cooyong Street precinct", but redevelopment would be up to the church, he said. No recent offers had been made.
