Little Mindil beachfront site on the market

NEW Zealand-based casino and entertainment operator SkyCity has put its 5.6ha .

The site, which is expected to fetch at least $12 million, has been the home of the popular Darwin Turf Club Cup Ball for close to a decade and is one of Darwin’s most prized development sites.

The 51,300 sqm site has about 200m of beach frontage looking back to Fannie Bay and sits below the Myilly Point escarpment.

The Clare Martin government sold Little Mindil, which is next to the casino, to SkyCity for $6.6 million in 2006.

The sale allowed the development of its $50 million lagoon beachside resort on the lawns previously used for the Darwin Cup ball and enabled SkyCity to retain Little Mindil as an unfenced special events entertainment park.

Last November it sold its casino resort to US-based Delaware North for $188 million.

Before the NT Government sold Little Mindil to SkyCity a number of uses had been floated, including a $35 million eco resort; a sports stadium; and an indigenous cultural centre.

Talk of a low-rise tourism resort at Little Mindil Beach was welcomed by the NT Chamber of Commerce, which said it would be a boost for tourism and was the type of development Darwin had needed for many years. Planning Action Network opposed the sale.

While SkyCity did not undertake any development on the Little Mindil site, it is a multi-zone site with the majority zoned Tourist Commercial.

Colliers International is the sole selling agent and declined to comment about the sale.

Its advertising describes the site as exceptional – “situated between the Casino Resort and Myilly Point while also having direct proximity to Cullen Bay, Larrakeyah, The Gardens and Darwin CBD”.

“Improvements currently include a fully landscaped and serviced car park (230 bays), pedestrian access paths and open lawn beachfront entertainment area,” it says.

“With outstanding tourism and lifestyle amenity on the doorstep of the site the property has exceptional views with ocean to the West and tropical parklands and Gardens Park golf course to the South and East. Little Mindil is well positioned for a variety of development outcomes including hotel, resort, tourism, lifestyle and commercial applications.”

Little Mindil is for sale via an expressions of interest campaign that closes on March 15.