Billionaire Kerry Stokes is set to acquire a laneway behind his company’s Australian Capital Equity building, which has been public access for decades.
Billionaire Kerry Stokes is set to acquire a laneway behind his company’s Australian Capital Equity building, which has been public access for decades.
The City of Perth received an unsolicited bid for the purchase of Altona Laneway in West Perth but kept the details under wraps until the minutes of a recent council meeting was published.
The council last month voted to approve the key commercial terms for Comserv (No 1698) Pty Ltd to buy 177 square metres of land, named Altona Laneway, for $675,000 excluding GST.
Comserv is 100 per cent owned by Australian Capital Equity (ACE), according to an Australian Securities and Investments Commission document.
Data on CoreLogic shows Comserv owns 30 Kings Park Road where the ACE office is based, the adjacent building on 32 Kings Park Road and 1 Altona Street, which housed BCI Minerals, a company backed by Mr Stokes.
The laneway runs behind the two Kings Park Road buildings and BCI Minerals, and is part of a bigger plot of land bound by Kings Park Road, and Outram and Altona streets that is under a right of way.
A laneway runs behind Mr Stokes's Australian Capital Equity building in West Perth.
City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas did not vote at the council meeting and declared a conflict of interest with Australian Capital Equity being a major shareholder of his employer 7West Media.
The matter was discussed and voted by councillors behind closed doors but was passed unanimously by the seven councillors who were able to vote, who were deputy mayor Liam Gobbert, Di Bain, Sandy Anghie, Clyde Bevan, Brent Fleeton, Rebecca Gordon and Viktor Ko.
An archived certificate of title shows former state politicians Frederick Charles Monger and Alexander Forrest owned the land in the 1890s.
The state government acquired the West Perth land under a taking order issued in 2001, and disposed it to City of Perth to be used as a right of way.
The city last week published a public notice for the proposed sale of Altona Laneway to Comserv, with submissions to be considered by council at a later date.
Conditions for the sale include subdivision approval with cancellation of existing right of way and creation of public access easement on the new title.
The public notice also revealed the market value of the land under the proposed sale is $660,000.
