November has certainly been a big month for sales of Old Masters. A Da Vinci painting sold at auction in New York for a mind-boggling $A591million. Closer to home, did you see that our own MidCoast Council has been off on its own Old Masters buying spree as well?
At an Extraordinary meeting held on November 2, Council resolved to proceed with the purchase and settlement should occur on December 4. Unless you recognise it from the picture, the article on the Council website does not actually tell you which of the Old Masters that Council is buying. We are not told of the purchase price either – that has been redacted. But the accompanying papers tell us the purchase will be from borrowings repayable over a 20 year term. We do know that the vendor was seeking in the vicinity of $A6-10million for the property, the old Masters site on the southern side of Taree.
What are Council's plans for the site? What are the implications for Council-owned premises elsewhere? This is what the Council papers say:
Council would fund the acquisition and any future fit out costs from loan borrowings over a 20 year period given the likely long term life of the building and associated infrastructure. In the event of consolidating the various offices into a central administration facility at this location then obviously Council will also need to consider its options in respect of the various existing administration facilities - this would be the subject of further reports to Council.
