ARARAT - The owner/developer of the former Prestige Mill site is devastated over a fire which destroyed part of the complex on Saturday night.
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The fire caused around $300,000 damage to the building on the Lowe Street side of the site, owned by Roma 8 Pty Ltd.
With four youths interviewed by police over the fire, aged 17, 15, 14 and 11, Dominic Calabro, spokesman for the owner Roma 8 Pty Ltd, expressed his disappointment that children were not being supervised.
In October 2006 Mr Calabro announced his intentions to develop the old Prestige site, proposing a $30 million development which would include 51 independent living units for retirees, a medical centre, convention centre/hotel and retail outlets.
However, these plans were cancelled as according to Mr Calabro there was no support from the business community for a development of this scale.
A small portion of the site contains a disused cemetery which was decommissioned by an Act of The Victorian Parliament in 1926. Roma 8 Pty Ltd then planned a housing subdivision to be built around the cemetery site, leaving it separate to the development, and Ararat Rural City Council approved demolition of the buildings in March last year.
However, Mr Calabro is critical of Council's treatment of the proposed project.
"I've had a couple of parties interested in buying the site, but the feedback I have received is that they have gone to Council and Council generally has been negative and not encouraging of development," Mr Calabro said.
"I have offered the decommissioned cemetery site to Council to buy it, but they said they do not have the money and are not interested. I have offered to donate it to Council as a parkland reserve, but they are not interested because they don't want to mow the lawns."
Mr Calabro said that offering to donate the 3000 square metre cemetery site to Council would be at a considerable cost to him, but he was prepared to do it to move the project forward.
"It's not as though I'm not losing, but in order to do something constructive with this site I'm prepared to donate the decommissioned site to the council," he said.
Mr Calabro said Council did not appear to want to work together to move the project forward.
"Council's negativity has been appalling, they have basically said 'no you can't do it'," he said.
"I've been most disenchanted with the whole process. I'm a positive person but there's only so many times you can bang your head against a brick wall before it starts to hurt and ask 'Why am I doing this for?'."
Mr Calabro believes the development of the Prestige site, which has been vacant for many years, into a housing subdivision, is needed in Ararat. Local agents say it is possibly the most prestigious piece of land for re-development in Ararat.
"The community will get rid of an eyesore, builders get more building blocks and people who want a house close to town, gardens and hospital get to buy a house," he said.
"The community is being stifled by a few people who are quite openly anti-development.
"This is to the detriment of the locals of Ararat who are ready to move their town forward and make available affordable land in a highly desirable location."