CBD Metro compensation mess

In contrast, the five major Metro construction tenderers have got $93 million compensation.

Customer numbers fell when the government bought and cleared the neighbouring block to make way for the Metro, while an adjoining block on Elizabeth St was effectively vacated in preparation for sale. At one point, the arcade was surrounded by a construction zone.

Despite Metro plans being shelved in February, the Castlereagh St building remains empty, and Transport NSW has informed the owners that it will be re-leased “eventually”.

Owners were shocked to get letters in June from independent assessor KPMG rejecting compensation claims they had been invited by Sydney Metro to make. The letters said they had not established “legal entitlement” to compensation.

“We weren’t told we had to show legal entitlement,” Mr Papas said. “In fact we were told we would not need lawyers to make our submissions.” Owners have since met Sydney Metro representatives, who helped them structure submissions for review by Justice Stein. But the owners said they feel they are “being led up the garden path”.

Deanne Coucouvinis, who owns Bar Bellino, labelled the process a farce.

“They’re quite happy to spend hundreds of thousands of dollar on KPMG and Paul Stein, when they could have paid us 10 times and over,” she said.

Greens Transport spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon wants the government to reveal how many small business compensation claims have been rejected.

“The rejection of these compensation claims by the NSW government is another kick in the teeth for small businesses which, through no fault of their own, have been dragged into the CBD Metro debacle,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Providing the opportunity for a ‘second opinion’ by a retired judge appointed and paid for by the government is insulting.”

A Transport NSW spokesperson said Sydney Metro representatives had met with business owners as a group and individually.

“At the group meeting on June 30, Rodd Staples, as the senior Sydney Metro representative, also offered these business owners the opportunity to write to him directly, to ensure every opportunity for due process in these cases,” the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the small business owners are fighting to keep their heads above water.

Ms Coucouvinis is on a lease until 2012 and her rent has gone up 5 per cent.

“So we just have to survive,” she said. “(My husband) Spiro and I work our butts off to pay the overdraft we got to make up for lost revenue.”

Mr Papas spends his nights praying that his dry-cleaning machinery keeps working. “I’m stuck. If my machines go, I’m finished,” he said.

As the Metro has only been deferred, not cancelled, businesses in the arcade are not saleable. Even if they were, the owners said, it would be almost impossible to re-establish themselves in a similar position in the CBD.

Not all have the time. Harvey Ikladios, 70, has owned the Chifley Arcade newsagency for nearly 40 years. Before the Metro, he planned to sell it to retire. Now he could lose his house, as well as his business.

What’s happened to private property rights?

“The big picture when you take into account what’s happening with us and the Leamington Ave residents is that people have no property rights anymore,” Bar Bellino owner Deanne Coucouvinis said.

“At the stroke of a pen this government can kill in a second what you’ve spent your whole life building up.

“The government has become a developer themselves, without the limitations of a private company - they can hold this metro over our heads forever.”

Tino Vieira, owner of Bartino Tapas Bar in Union St at Pyrmont, did not apply for compensation despite spending months fighting to save his business from compulsory acquisition by Sydney Metro, as his government-paid solicitor told him he “wouldn’t have a leg to stand on”.
Mr Vieira was one of four business owners on the street to receive a compulsory acquisition notice in 2009.
“Just after I finished renovations here, they gave me the notice that I was going to be acquired,” he said. “So instead of putting all my energy into the business, I put a lot of it into saving the building, and the business suffered.
“I’ve been trying to catch up ever since, and now I’m having financial difficulties.”
He said the state government was going pay him $1.4 million for a building he paid $800,000 for 16 years previously.
“That alone was enough to destroy me mentally,” he said.
Mr Vieira said he is the only one still on Union St who can claim compensation. He said one owner sold up and moved, the building of another burnt down, and one signed a deed from the government giving up future compensation rights in exchange for recompense for legal and valuation costs related to the acquisition – a document that Mr Vieira said his own solicitor tried to get him to sign.
Fortunately, Mr Vieira spoke to another business owner in Rozelle who told him that she had not signed the document and her solicitor had still been paid.
“So I got back to my solicitor and told them, look this is what happened in Rozelle, why are you practically forcing me to sign a document that says I will not have any rights in the future? You should only be claiming for your costs and I should be free to claim compensation,” he said. “And I refused to sign it.
“So I’m alone in Pyrmont. But luckily, I do have the community here behind me.”
President of the Pyrmont Community Group Jean Stuart said local business owners should have received compensation for loss of business during negotiations for the metro.
BUSINESS IN LEGAL LIMBO
Tino Vieira, owner of Bartino Tapas Bar in Union St at Pyrmont, did not apply for compensation despite spending months fighting to save his business from compulsory acquisition by Sydney Metro, as his government-paid solicitor told him he “wouldn’t have a leg to stand on”.

Mr Vieira was one of four business owners on the street to receive a compulsory acquisition notice in 2009.

“Just after I finished renovations here, they gave me the notice that I was going to be acquired,” he said. “So instead of putting all my energy into the business, I put a lot of it into saving the building, and the business suffered.

“I’ve been trying to catch up ever since, and now I’m having financial difficulties.”

He said the state government was going pay him $1.4 million for a building he paid $800,000 for 16 years previously.

“That alone was enough to destroy me mentally,” he said.

Mr Vieira said he is the only one still on Union St who can claim compensation. He said one owner sold up and moved, the building of another burnt down, and one signed a deed from the government giving up future compensation rights in exchange for recompense for legal and valuation costs related to the acquisition - a document that Mr Vieira said his own solicitor tried to get him to sign.

Fortunately, Mr Vieira spoke to another business owner in Rozelle who told him that she had not signed the document and her solicitor had still been paid.

“So I got back to my solicitor and told them, look this is what happened in Rozelle, why are you practically forcing me to sign a document that says I will not have any rights in the future? You should only be claiming for your costs and I should be free to claim compensation,” he said. “And I refused to sign it.

“So I’m alone in Pyrmont. But luckily, I do have the community here behind me.”

President of the Pyrmont Community Group Jean Stuart said local business owners should have received compensation for loss of business during negotiations for the metro.

Source: http://sydney-central.whereilive.com.au/news/story/metro-mess/