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A Redlands councillor has deemed a developer’s offer to buy back into a project he was sensationally dumped from “paltry”, and accused him of leaking confidential information to the media.
The bayside council voted to ditch a two-year-old agreement for Don O’Rorke’s Consolidated Properties Group (CPG) to build a Coles-anchored shopping centre and multi-storey car park at Redland Bay Marina late last year, just months before construction was due to begin.
Instead, the council will rely on the state government to build only a car park to service Southern Moreton Bay Islanders who commute on ferries to their parked cars at the marina.
The email – from councillor Rowanne McKenzie, who voted for the change – comes after this masthead published O’Rorke’s concerns the decision could benefit a local developer with family links to the council’s CEO.
O’Rorke said Fox and Bell, whose principal Greg Bell has a family link to council chief executive Louise Rusan, was selling the nearby Woolworths-anchored Redlands Shopping Village, the value of which could be affected by the new shopping centre.
The vote confounded O’Rorke, who said the $250 million project was running on time and on budget when it was nixed.
“To receive a last-minute late-night notice saying they did not wish to proceed is truly puzzling, the only winner out of this being Woolworths,” he said.
Fox and Bell principal Garry Hargrave previously said whether the shopping village was being sold was “not relevant”.
Following the story illuminating the family links between Rusan and Fox and Bell, O’Rorke made a public offer to buy the land for $5.5 million from the council’s investment arm, Redland Investment Corporation (RIC).
On Wednesday, McKenzie responded to the offer, telling O’Rorke she thought the developer and council could no longer work together.
“Given the media coverage over the past few weeks that appears to have been initiated by your organisation, it’s my opinion that the relationship with CPG is no longer tenable,” she wrote.
“As the media coverage alludes to impropriety on council’s behalf, should we decide to sell the remainder of the site not required for the car park, we would adhere to the Local Government Regulation Act 2012 and dispose of the land by way of public tender or auction.
“Should that occur, we would receive fair market value which I am sure would exceed your paltry offer, a figure that to my understanding was confidential.”
In a statement to this masthead, O’Rorke said he did not initiate the coverage.
“All we want to do is deliver the Coles centre and if the state wishes, the car park, which is what council asked [us] to do and the community wants. We didn’t initiate the media, and only gave the written statement, which we provided to council before we issued it,” he said.
When reached, McKenzie said she would not be commenting on the email.
The project is part of the state designated Weinam Creek priority development area, and the decision to switch plans followed meetings between councillors, local MPs and high-level bureaucrats from the state-run Economic Development Queensland, who have oversight on PDAs.
Scott Hutchinson, the chairman of contracted builders Hutchinsons, said he too was surprised by the change.
“We’ve invested and committed resources to start in mid-2026 and finish by 2028. It’s unusual to see the delivery model change at this stage, especially with Coles no longer going there,” he said.
“Council is usually a very reliable partner, so this is unexpected.”
Despite the approaching start date, the councillor who moved the motion, Shane Rendalls, insisted the change would hasten the delivery of the car park.
In a post on his website shortly after the vote he said the “level of collaboration between the state government and the Redlands council was previously unheard of”.
But that was not the message coming from the top of that government, with deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie writing to Redland Mayor Jos Mitchell to tell her he found the decision “regrettable”.
The car park was an election commitment from the LNP, and first-term MP for Redlands, Rebecca Young, who is Bleijie’s assistant minister, attended meetings about the project in December.
Asked on Wednesday about the situation, Bleijie said he thought there was an opportunity for “more than a car park” at Weinam Creek, and that he understood O’Rorke’s concern.
“That’s why when I found out about it, I wrote to the council and I said, ‘we really need to look at all opportunities here,’” he said.
“If there are opportunities for shopping centres [and] medical centres, then absolutely we should be doing that.”
Rusan’s conflict of interest was registered and had been managed by the council, a spokesperson said last week.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics and the public service. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.From our partners
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