A buyer has been found for the buildings owned by the Nelson Suburban Club, saving it from a $2.7 million debt.
The buyer – understood to be a local company – has bought the buildings and land on Tahunanui Drive and it will lease it back to the club for a minimum of 12 months.
Executive committee members and staff at the club were informed about the deal on Monday night and club members are to be officially told at a meeting tonight.
The sale is the perfect scenario for the club. It gets to continue to operate from its purpose-build facility while relieving it from the crippling $2.7million debt that was incurred in the middle 2000s for a building upgrade.
Treasurer Ben Douglas says the deal is the best they could have hoped for.
“I’m pretty stoked with what we’ve achieved. Of all the scenarios that faced us, this was the best one. But there is a bit of sadness tinged with it.”
The Suburban Club has owned the site for four decades and it was valued at just under $4 million.
Ben says while there is no guarantee that they will be able to occupy the site beyond a year, the purchasers, who he refused to name, have said they would work in with the club.
“Every party that we’ve worked with has been really good and the fact that the club can continue to operate from that building is good news.”
