'Aggressive' marketing campaign for Carisbrook

An "aggressive" marketing campaign to sell Carisbrook ground will begin in early February, as the Dunedin City Council looks to recoup the $7 million it paid for the facility.

Although no offers have been made, some major players have already looked around the stadium, council property manager Robert Clark said yesterday.

Time is of the essence for the council, as leaving the ground unused is costing more than $400,000 a year. That drain on resources started on October 1.

The council announced in April it had decided to sell the ground, which was no longer needed, following construction of the Forsyth Barr Stadium.

That decision followed months of public consultation, during which many people called for the ground to be kept as a sports facility.

The Otago Rugby Football Union is expected to move from Carisbrook to the Forsyth Barr Stadium this month.

The property consists of a 5000sq m site on the corner of Burns and Neville Sts, and the stadium itself, an area of about 30,000sq m.

The council bought the properties from the Otago Rugby Football Union for $7 million, and the cost of about $440,000 a year is to pay interest on the money borrowed to buy them.

Mr Clark said the job of selling the industrial-zoned land had been given to property consultant Colliers International New Zealand.

In September, Mr Clarke said responses from the real estate companies that vied for the job of selling the ground suggested the $7 million paid for it might be recouped.

Prices of between $200 and $300 a square metre were suggested in the real estate proposals which would result in a return of between $6 million and $9 million.

Yesterday, he said while the stadium was already on the market, it had been decided not to market it aggressively until after the Christmas break.

Some "substantial organisations" had already looked through it, he said.

- david.loughrey@odt.co.nz