Hellenic Club reveals multipurpose development plans, as clubs look beyond pokies

Hellenic Club board president Andrew Satsias said the club would seek to capitalise on growing residential development in Woden for its future earnings.

"Building on the significant residential development that is already occurring across the town centre, our goal has been to identify multiple commercial anchors that will drive foot traffic and visitation to our site," he said.

The club's master plan for development at its Woden site includes a three-level undercover carpark with 800 spaces, a 2000-seat multipurpose theatre, a 150-room hotel, a range of hospitality venues, function and conference spaces, commercial office space, a childcare centre, gym and day spa, as well as a multicultural centre.

Engagement on the plan will begin next week when the club presents its design to the Woden Valley Community Council. The development application will take about six months to prepare and could be lodged in late September of early October.

Chief executive officer Ian Cameron said in a statement the club hoped the application would be at notification stage before the end of the year.

Mr Cameron said the 20,000 square metres of office space could house Commonwealth or territory public servants.

"While there have not been any conversations with potential tenants, the 20,000 metres squared of office [net lettable area] is expected to be an attractive, long-term proposition for an ACT or Commonwealth government anchor tenant," he said.

"Especially with the inclusion of childcare and an office sky garden to encourage a batter working environment and connection to the outdoors."

Charging stations for electric vehicles would also feature but the club could not yet say how many.

The Hellenic Club's plans comes as clubs across Canberra move away from gambling generated revenue, ushered by territory government incentives and the growth of online gambling.

"This project is about diversifying revenue and securing the long-term future of the club as we do not foresee a reliance on poker machine revenue in the long run," Mr Cameron said.

Childcare, gyms and residential apartments are among popular developments for clubs looking to diversify their revenue streams, Canberra Community Clubs chairman Athol Chalmers said.

"Most clubs are about 60 per cent plus reliant on gaming revenue, we need to change that quite dramatically, but we can't reduce the gaming revenue until we've got a substitute revenue stream," Mr Chalmers said.

He said there was some frustration from clubs over the length and costs associated with the planning period, citing an example from the Burns Club, of which he is also chairman.

"We've been in the process of trying to get an agreement to build a car park for nearly three years, because the processes we have to go through in terms of development applications, working with the various stakeholder groups, takes a long time," he said.

The Hellenic Club's Woden site generated $11.2 million in gaming machine revenue in the 2021 financial year.

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The territory government offers funding grants to clubs for diversification, as well as a cashback scheme that sees clubs receive $15,000 for each pokie machine authorisation surrendered and $20,000 for each, where a club chooses to go poker-machine free.

A spokesperson said several clubs had expressed interest in the scheme, but since the incentive was announced on March 18, no clubs had yet received surrender incentives under the scheme.

"The government does not pay surrender incentives until the associated surrender has been confirmed by ACT Gambling and Racing Commission. This may take at least several weeks following application by a club," the spokesperson said.

"Additionally, a club must surrender their 'authorisation certificate' to go pokie-free at a venue, which requires majority support of club members determined by a ballot process that takes at least 6 weeks.

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