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THURSDAY, 6 APRIL 2023
BUSINESS & PROPERTY
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Beachcomber wins Hotel of the Year award The Beachcomber Hotel & Resort at Toukley has taken out the award for 2022 Hotel of Year across Choice Hotels Asia-Pac Ascend Hotel group. The hotel franchise group’s awards shine a light on the top performing hotels across its growing network. Five franchisees were selected based on exceeding excellent customer service and guest experiences across each of Choice Hotels Asia-Pac’s five brand categories – Ascend Hotel Collection, Clarion,
The Beachcomber Hotel & Resort at Toukley
Quality, Comfort and Econo Lodge – and celebrated with this prestigious annual award. The Hotel of the Year Awards are measured on a ‘likelihood to recommend’ metric calculated on direct and verified customer feedback, combined with franchisee engagement in Choice Hotels Asia-Pac programs and initiatives such as the Choice Privileges loyalty program, corporate social responsibility partnerships and numerous marketing promotions throughout the year. The Beachcomber took out
Hotel of the Year in the Ascend Hotel Collection category, while three Victorian hotels won the Clarion, Quality and Econo Lodge sections and a Mackay hotel won the Comfort category. The five winning hotels will go into the pool of global properties competing for the Best of Choice Awards to be announced later this month and celebrated at the Choice Hotels International Convention in Las Vegas at the end of April. Source: Choice Hotels Asia-Pac
Regional library still on agenda despite tender setback Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart is hopeful we will have a new regional library by the end of next year, despite another delay in the tender process. With only one submission received to build the library at 123A Donnison St and demolish the building currently on site, Council rejected the tender at its March 28 meeting, deciding instead to negotiate with the one tenderer in an effort to lower the quote. A report to the meeting said the contract’s evaluation team had completed an initial evaluation of the submission in accordance with the tender’s evaluation criteria.
An artist’s impression of how the regional library might look
“The team) has indicated that a successful outcome is most likely to be achieved through direct negotiation with one or all of the shortlisted proponents in lieu of a re-tender,” the report said.
In August 2021, Hart approved the use of a two-stage process, an Expression of Interest (EOI) followed by a selective Request for Tender (RFT), combining the demolition of the building on site and construction of the
library. Tenders closed on March 17. “Council has evaluated submissions and identified departures and clarifications that present risk to Council and
value management opportunities that must be investigated by Council to ensure best value for money is obtained for this contract,” the report said. The library will be funded by a combination of developer contributions, a special levy collected from former Gosford Council, Federal Government Community Grants and internally restricted funds. A total of $2,462,993 had been spent on the project to the end of February. While the tender evaluation is confidential, Hart said the Council would now go through a process of value management. “We will go through the pricing and eliminate some
perceived risks … and hopefully lower the tender,” he said. “I am still hopeful it will be built by the end of 2024.” The regional library was originally to form part of a larger cultural precinct on a large parcel of land between Mann and Donnison Sts, which was also to have included a performing arts centre and linking walkways. Amid fears of escalating project costs, Council decided in October 2019 to shelve plans for the cultural precinct and instead push ahead with plans for the regional library as a stand-alone project. Terry Collins
RDACC says election result puts Coast in advantageous position Regional Development Australia Central Coast (RDACC) Chair, Lawrie McKinna, says having four Labor MPs on the Central Coast puts the region in an advantageous position following the Minns Government’s landslide win in the March 25 State election. “I would like to congratulate all of our elected members for the Central Coast, following the recent state elections – Liesl Tesch in Gosford, David Harris in Wyong, David Mehan in The
Entrance, Yasmin Catley in Swansea and Adam Crouch in Terrigal,” he said. “Despite some closely contested battles, there has been no change to any of our local seats and I look forward to continue working with all of them to make the Central Coast a priority in terms of funding and investment for the NSW state government.” RDACC Deputy Chair Anna Cruckshank said that as always,collaboration would be key to achieving real results for the region. “To date, RDACC has been
collaboration from all levels of government and sides of politics, as well as co-operation across multiple industry and 138 Robina Town Centre Drive Robina business Qld 4226 sectors. PO Box 3275 Robina Town Centre Qld 4230 “With this change of state government, RDACC will Tel: 1300 36 0867 Fax: 1300 81 8962 continue to facilitate this level email: artwork@localdirectories.com.au of collaboration to tackle the www.localdirectories.com.au Coast’s key priorities including regional infrastructure investment, modern manufacturing, jobs growth RDACC Chair Lawrie McKinna and Deputy Chair Anna Cruckshank and housing affordability.” successful in working regional infrastructure McKinna thanked all the collaboratively with our elected investment to the Coast,” she region’s MPs for their work to officials and regional leaders to said. date and said the results attract more than $1.5B in “This was the result of provided an opportunity to
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build on collective achievements. “As a region, we have proven we can work together to achieve positive outcomes for the Central Coast community – no matter what side of politics or level of government you’re from,” he said. “We can now strengthen these relationships and build on these collective achievements to achieve even better outcomes for the people of the Central Coast.”
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Source: RDACC