Sticking to his promise to put property investors and developers on notice, City of Greater Geraldton CEO, Ken Diehm, said he has served a notice on the owners of Town Towers.

“As I said last month, the vibrancy of the City is being held back because of speculative investments and lack of development interest and I’m not prepared to sit back and allow the situation to continue,” he said.

The City served a ‘notice of intention to issue an order for demolition’ on the owners of Town Towers, a multi-storey, mostly empty building in Geraldton’s CBD on Thursday, October 10.

“This building is a blight on our town landscape and has serious safety issues. The message is clear – demolish or develop,” said Mr Diehm.

“I still believe some parts of the CBD look like they are under siege whilst others look like they have been attacked by terrorists.

“This is not a good image when we are trying to promote Geraldton as a tourist destination and trying to attract new residents,” he said.

Mr Diehm said the City is planning to hold a workshop for all city centre land owners, investors, and developers to work with them to identify, and help remove roadblocks and barriers to development of the city centre.

“I will do everything within my power to work with investors and developers to facilitate the development of their properties and bring some vibrancy into the City,” he said.

“I’m not prepared to wait any longer while buildings in the heart of our city continue to decay around us because developers are sitting on their hands waiting for a property price spike.

“It is just treating our community with contempt.”

The workshops are to be held in Geraldton on November 6, 2013.