Loganholme Land for Sale.

A “For Sale” sign has appeared on the land ISQ owns at Loganholme.

Who authorised this? No mention has been made in council minutes that this matter was discussed. It was not mentioned at the AGM, in either the annual report, the treasurer’s report or the business committee report, the members of which all knew the land had been put up for sale late last year.

It makes a mockery of the pledge by the then council to deliver a new age of transparency.

Concerned Member

In 1997 a notice appeared in the local press that a new stadium designed specifically for ice skating was to be built in  Commercial Drive , Loganholme on behalf of a consortium of ice hockey interests based on t he Gold Coast.   The then trustees, who were at the time considering how and when they might be able to construct an Association ice rink in the Loganholme area, were apprehensive of the negative effects this proposed stadium might have on the development and future of figure skating in the area and how it would surely impinge on the wellbeing of Ice Skating Queensland’s members and the IceWorld rinks .

The then trustees had, in 1994, just three years earlier opened IceWorld Boondall.  That venture had been financed in part by the Commonwealth Bank with a twelve year loan which would not be paid off until 2006.  It was not possible under that circumstance to commit any Association funds to building the desired rink at Loganholme so the then trustees decided that the only feasible approach to adopt was for them to undertake the project themselves and later, when the Association had acquired further cash assets, to sell the facility to the trust for acquisition by the Association.

The only way in which an ice rink could be constructed quickly, and this was essential under the circumstance, was to find an existing building which could be converted to house an ice rink.  Fortunately such a building, although not large enough to allow the construction of a full sized floor,  was found and the new ice rink known as IceWorld  Logan ( a name approved by the ISQ Council)    opened in April 1998.  Some surplus and underutilized equipment belonging to the Association, such as an initially spare Zamboni  which had not been used since the Southbank rink had closed some years earlier and lacked suitable storage space was used at the new rink.  Similarly a second Zamboni used at the Goodwill Games, being surplus to the requirements at Acacia Ridge and Boondall, was used at Loganholme while some of the casual staff from Acacia Ridge were used to back up the Loganholme staff at times and where required.  Some Zamboni  maintenance and other charges were also met by the trust.

Although no direct payment or reimbursement for any of the above was made to the trust,  substantial quantities of various pieces of equipment and assets, most of which the rinks still have,  were provided to the trust at no charge by the then trustees to offset the value of the services provided by the Association.    These included 5,000 pairs of skates used largely for promotional purposes,  computers, office furniture and equipment,  use of motor vehicles  including  utility trucks  for 28 years, a generator  of sufficient capacity to run a large ice rink, mowers, a fork lift and the use of a grand piano (in the restaurant and for seminars) for some seven years at Boondall to name just a few.   The value of all of this is far in excess of any amount which could be charged against the Loganholme operation.

The question is asked as to why the Loganholme rink was not sold to the Association in 2004 when the rink closed.  The answer to that is that IceWorld Loganholme proved  to be unsuitable for an Association facility.  In part this was because the ice surface was too small but primarily because unlike Acacia Ridge and Boondall, the building had not been purpose built:  it was lacking the necessary insulation to keep the interior dry from excessive condensation and had not enough off ice facilities.  The property’s value, therefore, lay only in the real estate and not in the business of an ice skating rink.

For the above reasons the opportunity was taken to sell the property in response to an offer from a developer.   At the same time a concerted effort was made to find an alternative site for a new rink which was indeed found a couple of kilometers down the highway in a prime position.  By this time, 2004, with the final repayment on the loan to build Boondall soon to be made, substantial funds had been saved from the profits of the rinks at Boondall and Acacia Ridge, so much so, that the trust was able to pay $1.2 million for the new site and put it into the name of the Association.    Plans were drawn up for the new rink, building approval given, bank finance obtained and a builder chosen.  That was the end of it because some unimaginative, unthinking and short sighted members chose to fight the proposal and it was shelved.  Subsequently court action was instigated to terminate the lease held by the then trustees, remove them and terminate the trust.  This action was ultimately successful but the court action cost the Association even up to that point many hundreds of thousands of dollars and the loss of a much needed new ice rink.

What happened after that is described elsewhere but what the plans are for the future are unknown.

Colin Edward Jackson

Donald McKnight    

21 November 2008