Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) has announced it is seeking expressions of interest to find out what should be done with Ray Walsh House.
TRC General Manager Paul Bennett made it clear at a press conference in Tamworth that Ray Walsh House “is still owned by Tamworth Regional Council and held on behalf of the community.”
“The process we announced for the community today is the formal expression of interest process, and that’s for reactivation ideas for Ray Walsh House.”
Council is looking to “draw on the expertise of business and individuals” in deciding what to do with the asbestos-riddled structure, which in its current state is not fit for use. The Expression Of Interest, available on council’s website, will run for 10 weeks, closing at 11am on the 26th of June.
The goal, Bennett said, is to reinvigorate the building in a way that would benefit Peel Street, and TRC is hoping to attract interest from major developers and property investors from across the country.
According to a statement by TRC, the aim is to seek out those “with appropriate financial resources, insurances, and legal status” with a “view to exploring and developing…a proposal to activate Ray Walsh House.”
Crucially, this may include sale of the asset, though returning it to us as Council’s headquarters is not off the table – the goal of the EOI is “to cast a wide net” to explore as many options as possible.
Turning it into a “supermarket or service station” is out, with the tender explicitly specifying “no proposal which includes a service station, supermarket or combination thereof will be considered by Council”.
“This is about having people in offices, in accommodation, small shop fronts that really add to the vibrancy of the centre of the city,” Bennett said.
While nothing firm has been suggested yet, and that nothing was off the table, TRC has said they’d like to preserve some aspect of what Bennett calls an “unusual” building.
“It’s what they call the brutalist style of building.” said Bennett.
“Certainly, we would like to see the facade enhanced, but not fundamentally changed.”
Remediation of the building could cost up to $70 million, according to Bennett based on figures given by the Office of Public Works, due to the amount and location of asbestos used in it.
“There’s been a lot of speculation in the community…that people could do it much, much cheaper,” Bennet said.
“I must say that, formally, nobody came forward to Council to say they could remediate the building for $10 or $15 million so if anybody knows exactly where those people are, I’d be more than happy to talk to them.”
Broken mechanical equipment, including air conditioning, cannot be repaired without disturbing the asbestos-based vermiculite insulation that was used in construction in the 1970s when Ray Walsh House was built, as was the style at the time.
Bennett assured reporters there was no threat to the community from the asbestos, and that “any work that’s undertaken will all be done in accordance with the appropriate standards”.
When built, the lifespan of the building was only meant to be fifty years, but Bennett stated the Tamworth regional community has already paid for the building “twice” – once when it was constructed by the original Peel Cunningham Council, and again when it was bought back off the State Government for “around $5 million” – about $10.6 million today – back in 1993.
Ray Walsh house has been empty since 2022, with Council staff now scattered across six locations around Tamworth.
In the end, the final decision on Ray Walsh House will rest with “Tamworth Regional Councillors – the community’s elected representatives,” the press release stated.
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