The Greek Orthodox community has launched court action against the state government to have a payout more than doubled to $27.91 million for land compulsorily acquired to make way for the North East Link.
Victoria’s Department of Transport and Planning took over the 61,080-square-metre site, where the former Hoyts Bulleen Drive-In once sat, in 2021 as part of the over-budget $26 billion toll road project that is due to open in 2028.
The Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria had planned to build a community centre on the Greenaway Street land in Bulleen more than 30 years after buying it, and hoped to sell one-sixth of the site to developers for as much as $11 million.
Under that proposal, the rest of the land would have become aged care, education, gallery and function spaces, as well as sporting fields where the plot is at risk of flooding.
The North East Link scuttled those plans, and the Valuer General determined the entire site was worth $11.45 million. The department offered and paid $11.48 million.
The Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, through law firm Rigby Cooke, using a valuation report by M3 Property, insists the land is worth $26.5 million.
The Greek Orthodox Community has sued the department before the Supreme Court to claim total compensation of $27.91 million.
That includes the land, compensation, as well as legal and other professional costs, and is despite only about 35 per cent of the site being considered developable. M3 Property compared recent sales to plots with a similar size of developable land to estimate its value.
The property report said part of the land could have been developed for mixed-use and residential.
The Greek Orthodox Community’s property portfolio also includes the 13-storey Greek Centre on Lonsdale Street and the Alphington Grammar School. Its churches also have a combined value of more than $110 million, according to its latest annual report to June 2023.
The registered charity brings in $775,000 in annual rent, down from $1 million before the pandemic.
The Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria did not return calls from The Age last week.
When the acquisition was finalised, president Bill Papastergiadis said it was disappointing the Bulleen centre would not be realised but that the payout would serve the community well into the future.
Boroondara City Council last year launched similar Supreme Court action against the department seeking additional compensation for 23 tennis courts compulsorily acquired for the North East Link. Under the claim, the council is seeking to have its compensation more than doubled to $64 million.
It remains before the courts.
“We are fighting to achieve a fair settlement following the state’s compulsory acquisition of the former Boroondara Tennis Centre,” council’s director of places and spaces Daniel Freer said, declining to comment further.
A Major Road Projects Victoria spokeswoman said compensation was based on independent assessments by the Valuer General.
“The land in Bulleen is vital for a new major interchange that will connect the Eastern Freeway to the new North East Link tunnels which will take 15,000 trucks off local roads,” she said.
“As this matter is before the courts it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The 10-kilometre toll road connecting the M80 Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway through Bulleen was initially budgeted at $10 billion and then reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion, but has since blown out to $26 billion.
Source: theage.com.au
