The President of the Cyprus Community of New South Wales, Spyros Constantinou, has issued a statement to clarify what he says are misconceptions expressed within sectors of the community who allege improprieties over the development process for the community’s properties in Stanmore, Sydney, and its registration as a charity organisation.

Speaking to Neos Kosmos on Thursday, Mr Constantinou said he assumed the presidency in 2019 to pull the community out of voluntary liquidation and to oversee the rezoning of the community’s prime properties in Stanmore from private recreational use to mixed use and residential.

Last year, after about four years of trying, the rezoning of the properties was approved and things began to look up. Even the COVID-19 pandemic offered a respite for the community’s debt burden as the lockdowns forced a big cut in operational costs and the buildings were hired out as a COVID testing site to provide a much-needed stream of income.

The rezoning significantly upgraded the properties’ value in a prime central Sydney location and provided an impetus to develop them to provide a secure income stream for the community into the future. Before the re-zoning the community was saddled with a $6 million debt and the sale of the properties was seen as the only way out.

“The rezoning was a big impediment out of the way. It formed the basis of new negotiations and pushed the value from $20 million to $60 million.

The Cyprus Community created the Cyprus Capital Company LTD to refinance the development of the property with shares being made available to members. This raised over $6 million.

One bank that had sought to call in the debts owed by the community instead reduced the debt burden to $3.4million and had offered a rate of 2.98 percent interest on the loan compared to the 11 percent from Cyprus Capital.

“The bank offered a much better lending rate as it can see that [the] properties profit potential is viable,” Mr Constantinou said.

Mr Constantinou said in his statement regarding the community’s proposal for the properties that: “The Community keeps 2,450 square metres of land at the front where a 4,900 square-metre building (plus 150 parking places underground) will be construct at a cost of $28 million. That will include a new club, retail shops and residential accommodation which will yield $1.5 million in rent before income from club operations.

“The rest of the land (about 6,680 square metres) will be leased to a developer (Platino Properties) for 99 years in return for $45 million. The land will always belong to the community and the title will never change names. The land and all other property will not be mortgaged by the developer at any time. The developer will transfer 500 square metres of building rights to the club site at no cost (additional value of $3.5 million).”

He also emphasised: “Nothing the board of directors agrees with the developer is legally binding until approval is given by members.”

The statement said that the board would also present to community members an independent valuer’s appraisal of the project.

Mr Constantinou said the committee chose Platino Properties to develop the properties, after a rigorous, six-months’ long selection process that had reviewed proposals from 35 developers.

“We included two developer experts in the selection panel, as well as Sergio Argirou, one of the directors of Cyprus Capital Company. We chose this developer because he did not want us to mortage the land as security (for developing it),” said Mr Constantinou.

He said the community’s board of directors had acted openly and had kept the community informed of every stage of the process concerning the future of the properties.

In January the community successfully applied to register as a charity – a status that exempts it from paying a tranch of taxes including income tax, capital gains, land tax and GST and other costs, which represented a saving of $20 million for the community.

This change in status also drew fire from one critic, Con CostasS) who said that the process had been hijacked and also threatened the way the community could be run as a result.

Mr Constantinou said the change in status did not alter the way the community had operated in the past. It had required a change in the constitution that was ratified after a long meeting before members of the community.

The old constitution had not defined social events that took place in the past as fund-raising events which were organised to help members of the community in matters relating to their health, social welfare, education and human rights. Mr Constantinou said this was the change in the community constitution that was need under the law to qualify it as charity.

Those present voted in favour of the change of status. The required 75 percent of the vote in favour of making the required change to the constitution was reached which was what the board needed to apply to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission for the change to take place.

The Commission granted charity status very quickly because Mr Constantinou said the Cyprus Community of New South Wales had already been doing charity work for the benefit of the community for many years.

Mr Constatinou said the laws regulating not-for-profit organisations and charities were so stringently observed that any hint of impropriety by the Cyprus community organisation would have been uncovered by commision. He said contrary to what critics of the board had said the voting process to allow the change of status was accepted as valid by the commission.

“We looked at all of this and sought legal advice. The charity commission took into account all that we presented and found that we complied with everything before granting us charity status.

“Last week alone we saved $85,000 in land tax (because of the change to charity status),” Mr Constantinou said.

“The community will pay zero percent tax on its income or any future income because it is now a registered charity.

He said that the community would have an opportunity to vote on the proposal after an extraordinary general meeting that will be called after the community annual general meeting in mid-May and the board elections in the weeks after the AGM.

He said the current community board could vote to pass the plan that it is recommending but it was felt that this was a matter for the members of the community to consider and to put to the vote when the new board is elected.

“We could have passed all this now but we are allowing for the democratic process to take place. It is an opportunity to show that we are not imposing our will on the community. I will explain the opportunities and options of our plans

“At every step in this process we have sought legal advice and will also have an independent lawyer speak to the members about the merits of the process. We have ensured that a Greek speaking lawyer will explain things to the members so that they can understand what we are doing.

“We have bent over backwards to show that we are not taking a gamble on the community’s future and there is not a shred of evidence that we have not followed proper procedures.”

“The plans for the redevelopment are on exhibition at the club and we are asking members for submissions about the shape the club should take. A lot more information will become public at the coming AGM and we would like as many members to attend as possible,” Mr Constantinou said in his statement