Freeze on the CEP will create opportunities for the region

Clive Skarott, former chairman of Ports North, wrote last week in The Weekend Post that the decision by the State Government to halt the awarding of a major contract has put the entire Cairns Entertainment Precinct at serious risk.

But it’s been apparent to me for some time now that far too much attention has been focused on the CEP as a silver bullet for Cairns, when – to put it in real estate terms – it’s all about location, location, location.

If the precinct was to stay where currently proposed, we will get more theatre space but we will not get more exhibition space. The Convention Centre currently has two areas for exhibitions totalling 3200sqm. Our regional neighbour Darwin in comparison has 4000sqm.

As the December 2011 Cummings Report into the CEP noted, the benefits of the CEP to the Convention Centre are likely to be restricted to “an additional conference of 1000 persons every two years”. That’s not going to bring prosperity to the region.

When we are looking at this sort of investment, and with the aim of maximising our future prospects and bidding for larger events, we have to look at how much more we can enhance it.

The way to achieve more exhibition space is by locating the Performing Arts Centre on the old Port Authority site. By designing it to link with the Convention Centre, we can increase the area to well over 5000sqm – making it the largest regional exhibition space in the country.

Importantly, the site offers room for a 4-star hotel, providing on-site accommodation which enhances the attractiveness of Cairns as a MICE destination. The hotel operator would also pay to build on the site, giving us more money to spend on the centre or offsetting some of our costs through the private contribution.

Additionally, the current waterfront site only allows for 105 car park spaces. Adjacent to the Port Authority site is the old Post Office land, which has been set aside for a multi-story 500-space car park and can be linked via an overbridge – creating 400 spaces more than under the current plan.

Now this is the clincher. We need to accept that the convention market is by far the highest yielding market in the tourism sector, generating four to five times more income. Conventions have kept many of smaller establishments alive in recent times and we need to capitalise on this.

This doesn’t mean to say that we can’t utilise some aspects of the precinct on the waterfront, but we also have to accept that the new State Government has already committed to widening the inlet. There may well be other prospects for port operations that haven’t yet emerged and we can’t lock those away prematurely.

There’s no reason why we couldn’t look at an aquarium on that site, utilise the remaining northern section of White’s Shed for the Ben Cropp Maritime Museum, and assist an indigenous-owned business like the highly-successful Tjapukai to establish its own indigenous cultural museum.

What this decision by the Minister does is give us the chance to look at other ways to maximise the possibilities for our city and our region – there is no question that we need a vibrant new performing arts centre but we need to look further than just a single piece of infrastructure.

We haven’t even discussed the elite sports activities that could be hosted, linking in with our bid to become the tropical campus for the Australian Institute of Sport and the rectangular stadium to host large 20,000-person plus entertainment events. It is this type of lateral thinking and cross-utilisation of infrastructure that is going to ensure future success and viability.

And despite what Mayor Val Schier argues, any suggestion that local, state or federal money is at risk is nonsense. The reality is that the commitments have been made. What could compromise the project is the perception from Brisbane or Canberra that it is unworkable – at the end of the day, we’re only talking about moving the facility 150m, but it could make a huge difference.

I think it’s an incredibly exciting time for Cairns, and in spite of what the doomsayers say it’s not going to slow down, and may well accelerate the pace. So let’s grab hold of this, and get the community along for the ride.