Sea Park sale to help finance K40mil needed to complete stadium

IT will cost K40 million to complete the construction of the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby, National Capital District Commission city manager Bernard Kipit says.
He said the money would come from the partial sale of the Sea Park land for K35 million, and the remaining K5 million from Bank of South Pacific financing.
“NCDC took over the incomplete stadium and the contract with Curtain Bros, and executed new terms to resume the stadium construction at a cost of K40 million,” he said.
“This will see the completion of the stadium with the fully fitted western grandstand, car park, fencing and other ancillary works to enable the stadium to be fully operational.”
The buyer of the Sea Park land, Sea Park Development Limited, is believed to be owned by an Australian-based Chinese businessman. The buyer will be required to invest at least K500 million to develop the area.
This is required to protect the investment around Ela Beach and APEC Haus.
Kipit confirmed that the buyer had already made a deposit of K7 million to seal the deal, plus a stamp duty of K1.75 million.
The second portion of the Sea Park land which houses APEC Haus will remain a NCDC property.
“Although we lost 4.19 ha of the land for the stadium, NCDC is getting compensated with ownership of a new land in the waterfront known as Portion 2848, and in the process of securing ownership of another two parcels of land on the waterfront that will see NCDC’s stake increasing eightfold,” Kipit said.