Six-month ‘or more’ lease extension likely
North Sydney PCYC is expected to receive a six-month lease extension on its Falcon Street premises, a year after the State Government decided to turn it into an ambulance station.
Health Infrastructure NSW bought the site off the PCYC reportedly for $11.55 million, with the PCYC announcing North Sydney would close in October.
North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker recently met with PCYC chief executive officer Ben Hobby and a representative from Ambulance NSW at the site. Mayor Baker told NL that the PCYC was expecting a six-month extension on the lease, but that this could be extended further.
“I advocated that they extend the lease,” Mayor Baker said. “Because it’s going to take at least 12 to 18 months for (Health Infrastructure) to finalise plans … and it gives the PCYC and council some breathing space to look at ways to secure its future within the area.”
A spokesperson for PCYC NSW told NL it was ‘currently in talks with
Health Infrastructure NSW regarding the possible extension of lease.’
“We are not at liberty to discuss the details as yet,” the spokesperson said.
An Infrastructure spokesperson told NL it was ‘working with both PCYC NSW and (council) to facilitate a suitable handover time of the site’.
“Planning is continuing for the ambulance station as part of the government’s $615.5 million NSW ambulance infrastructure program,” the spokesperson said.
“Next steps for the project include design finalisation and seeking planning approval. Construction timeframes will be confirmed as planning progresses and the community will continue to be updated on the status of the new ambulance project,” they added.
Mayor Baker said the services provided by the PCYC to the area’s at-risk youth were ‘vital to a community with increasing density and population.’
“I think it’s a stereotype that everyone’s a ‘silver tail’ in northern Sydney,” Mayor Baker said. “The reality is that 25 per cent of the people in North Sydney’s LGA are in the lowest socioeconomic band in the country.
“It shouldn’t be a ‘needs’ Olympics – there is need everywhere,” Mayor Baker said. “We really need to collaborate in order to find ways to accommodate that need.”
