For more than 25 years, 81A Bell St — directly opposite the Town Hall — has stood empty of the life that once filled old Coburg High School.
Through the early 1990s the Liberal State Government led by Jeff Kennett closed more than 300 schools; Coburg High was one. Opened in 1916, the school had a rich history obliterated by a short-sighted decision that robbed our community for more than 20 years of a local secondary school. But that’s a whole different story…
This short piece is an examination of the site’s sordid development history and the cost of short term political decisions that have resulted in a New Zealand for-profit aged care company now owning the site (with plans to build a facility with the capacity for 600 people should the company still see a way of turning a quid from old and dying people post Covid).
To pay off massive state government debt, Kennett used a real estate company directed by (premier to be) Ted Ballieau to sell the site. The original purchaser, the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, had plans for a low level retirement village for elderly blind people, but the institute was stymied by a heritage listing of the art deco façade that demanded its conservation.
Sleaze then touched the site when the frustrated institute sold it to George Tandos, Steve Angelodemou and Henry Kaye. Kaye was famous for the concept of mezzanine financing of property developments, whereby sales of one floor financed the building of the next floor; a sort of bricky Ponzi scheme that eventually collapsed under the weight of its own greed. During this time a mysterious fire destroyed the heritage listed façade of the school, depleting Coburg of an amazing piece of early 20th Century architecture.
Hamton and ‘the Millionaires Factory’, Macquarie, took ownership in 2009 and cobbled together a plan — partly financed by federal social housing money — for a massive 520 apartment complex. This all fell apart after a change in social housing funding made the proposal unprofitable and the site passed into the hands of Double LZ — a shady operation that had plans for 391 boxes. This development was opposed by Moreland Council and residents, who quixotically appeared before VCAT. As with most VCAT cases, VCAT decided on behalf of the developer.
In 2017 NZ based Ryman Healthcare, in partnership with Becca, took possession of the site and the approved plan. The Coburg site is but one of more than 8 huge ‘retirement villages’ Ryman plan to build in Victoria. Now, three years later, the site sits empty still. Nearby residents await anxiously for the rude intrusion of construction works that will build a gated community with an 11 storey palliative care quasi-hospital on the north west edge of the site abutting Bridges Reserve.
Once home to patients affected by the Spanish Flu in 1918, perhaps a pandemic will again influence this once proudly owned public land, now turned towards the profit of NZ shareholders.
By Peter Robertson
The Coburg Meddler 