Close Menu
  • Bayside News Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Read Our Newspapers Online
    • Read the Latest Western Port News
    • Read the Latest Mornington News
    • Read the Latest Southern Peninsula News
    • Read the Latest Frankston Times
    • Read the Latest Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Friday, July 11
Facebook X (Twitter)
Bayside News
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Police investigate Bonbeach collision
Breaking News
Bayside News
Home»News»Budget blowout at Saints’ former Seaford site
News

Budget blowout at Saints’ former Seaford site

Brodie CowburnBy Brodie Cowburn18 July 2022Updated:18 July 2024No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
ST Kilda FC’s former Seaford training base. Picture: Gary Sissons
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

WORKS to redevelop St Kilda Football Club’s abandoned Seaford training ground are going over budget.

St Kilda FC signed a peppercorn rent 50 year lease with Frankston Council in 2009 to use Belvedere Reserve as its home base. By 2018 the club had moved its training back to Moorabbin.

Council is currently in the process of renegotiating its lease with St Kilda FC. The new lease term will be for seven years, with two further seven year terms if certain conditions are met. The football club plans to use the site as a “healthy future hub”, which would host tenants like Belvedere Community Centre (“New lease for Saints at Seaford” The Times 12/10/21).

To date council has budgeted $3.23 million of ratepayer funding towards the refit, with an additional $750,000 set aside to build modular change rooms. The change rooms are dependent on St Kilda FC lobbying other levels of government for more funding. The project is now projected to cost $5.46 million, a whopping $2.23 million over budget.

Rising construction costs have been blamed for the blowout.  A report prepared by council read that it was “experiencing significant cost escalation on a number of building, civil and open space projects with project costs varying from 30 per cent to 40 per cent subject to overall scope of works and materials involved”.

Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy said the cost increase was due to “supply chain issues and broader economic conditions that are impacting the entire building industry locally and further abroad.”

“Council is actively managing project costs to ensure this exciting project is delivered so future generations of Frankston City residents have access to high quality community health and wellbeing facilities,” he said. “This project is a wonderful investment in our community and provides a much-needed facility for the health and wellbeing of our ratepayers, to be used for generations to come. Council has established a strong partnership with the St Kilda Football Club and will transform this facility into a thriving community hub.

“This project has been fully designed, has the support of the community and is ready to move to construction.”

Councillors agreed to put in extra funding at their most recent public meeting. The motion to approve the spending passed 7-2. Councillors Steven and Liam Hughes opposed the move.

Steven Hughes said he was concerned about handing more control over to St Kilda Football Club after it had left the site. “I don’t think St Kilda Football Club has done due diligence in looking after the facility which was partly paid for by Frankston Council. They left it almost empty, so I don’t think that St Kilda Football Club now should have the right to manage community groups that will be in that facility,” he said. “This is asking for an additional $2.2 million. I don’t believe it’s in the best interest of the Frankston ratepayers who are here tonight to be spending money on something an external organisation will benefit from. I think it should be 100 per cent managed by Frankston ratepayers – we are putting in the money and we should have the right to manage that facility for ourselves.”

Cr Brad Hill warned that if the project did not proceed it could end up costing more to rehome Belvedere Community Centre. “The alternative if we don’t do this is we walk away, St Kilda walks away, and the building is left empty. Those community groups won’t have a home, and we have to spend a few million dollars on the Belvedere Community Centre to renovate it,” he said.

Another councillor worried that the alternative to completing the project was a costly legal process. Cr Kris Bolam said “we have a choice of activating [the site] or we can go through the Supreme Court, potentially over the next four to five years, and litigate the matter. (…) Let’s get it done, I want to see it activated.”

The new lease in discussion would see St Kilda FC relinquish its use of the car park and oval. The proposed lease will cost the club $10,000 in rent during the first year, $15,000 in the second year, and $20,000 in the third year.

First published in the Frankston Times – 19 July 2022

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Brodie Cowburn
Brodie Cowburn

Related Posts

Councillors complete Canberra trip

10 July 2025

Life-saving acts recognised

9 July 2025

Tree milestone met

4 July 2025
Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Peninsula Essence Magazine

Click Here to Read

1 July 2025
Peninsula Kids Magazine

Click Here to Read

3 June 2025
Property of the Week

34 Pine Hill Drive, Frankston

21 March 2025
Council Watch

Council considers LGBTQIA+ initiatives

11 June 2025

New conditions applied to grants

4 June 2025
100 Years Ago this Week

Thefts at the Pier Hotel – £15 fine on three charges

8 July 2025
Interviews

Writing racecourse history

6 February 2024
Contact

Street: 1/15 Wallis Drive, Hastings, 3915
Mailing: PO Box 588, Hastings, 3915

Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Police investigate Bonbeach collision
About

Established in 2006, Mornington Peninsula News Group (MPNG) is a locally owned and operated, independent media company.

MPNG publishes five weekly community newspapers: the Western Port News, Mornington News, Southern Peninsula News, Frankston Times and Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News.

MPNG also publishes two glossy magazines: Peninsula Essence and Peninsula Kids.

Facebook X (Twitter)
© 2025 Mornington Peninsula News Group.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.