The former Fortune Theatre at 231 Stuart St, which Dunedin City councillor Benedict Ong has bid $88,888.88 to purchase and redevelop. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
He says the number communicates \u201cgreat Fortune\u201d to an estimated 1.5 billion people globally.<\/p>\n
Ong proposes putting at least $1m to $2m of his own equity into the development, alongside bank finance and strategic partners from what he describes as his global network from his former international banking career.<\/p>\n
The councillor also uses his bid to disclose his estimate of his personal wealth.<\/p>\n
He claims his current net estate value is between $10m and \u201cabove $20m\u201d and says, because he has no dependants, his estate could fund completion of the development in the event of his \u201cunforeseen demise\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is not the first time he has put his own money behind his ambitions \u2013 Ong spent $44,098.72 on his unsuccessful mayoral and successful council campaigns last year \u2013 the second-highest spend of any Dunedin candidate.<\/p>\n
Asked in the council\u2019s proposal form to describe any experience he had preserving heritage buildings, Ong does not identify a previous heritage restoration project.<\/p>\n
Instead, he points to his leadership experience in global finance, banking and financial management, as well as his present role as a \u201cCity governor\u201d, saying he would draw upon specialist expertise for the project.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the proposal, Ong describes himself as a \u201cone-of-a-kind, most unconventional public servant and politician serving our Dunedin City most innovatively and artistically\u201d.<\/p>\n
He says he would aim to have the building brought back into use within 12 to 18 months, with heritage conservation his \u201cnumber one priority\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, it is not yet clear whether Ong\u2019s proposal was successfully lodged before the council\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
In an email sent to council executives and elected members, Ong said he had attempted to submit the bid before Monday\u2019s 4pm deadline, but a \u201ctechnical error or technical difficulty\u201d meant it appeared to have been saved as a draft rather than being formally submitted.<\/p>\n
Councillor Benedict Ong reads from Franz Kafka\u2019s The Trial while defending himself in March, after an independent investigation found he had seriously breached the council\u2019s code of conduct. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n
He said login details subsequently emailed to him did not work and he had been unable to reach the council officer listed as the point of contact.<\/p>\n
Ong circulated his proposal to elected members and council staff regardless and said he would be \u201cproactively attempting\u201d to reach the manager in charge to ensure his bid was accepted.<\/p>\n
Dunedin City Council opened the former Fortune Theatre to bids on July 1, saying it wanted an individual, organisation or developer capable of giving the building a new lease of life.<\/p>\n
The council has owned the property since 2000. <\/p>\n
It opened as the Trinity Methodist Church in 1870, became a professional theatre in 1978 and has sat unused since the Fortune Theatre closed in 2018.<\/p>\n
Prospective buyers were required to demonstrate they understood the building\u2019s condition, how required works would be funded and how their proposal would benefit the city. <\/p>\n
The deadline was 4pm on Monday, August 17, after which staff were to review the proposals and report back to councillors regarding which, if any, should proceed.<\/p>\n
Ong acknowledged his dual position as councillor and bidder in his email, saying he would abstain from any council vote on the property.<\/p>\n
Ong also said he reserved the right to pay for external legal advice to ensure \u201cthe most objectively attractive bid\u201d was accepted and was open to joining another bidder as part of a consortium.<\/p>\n
The unusual property bid comes after another eventful month for the controversial councillor.<\/p>\n
Councillor Benedict Ong arrived at a council meeting with tape over his mouth in February. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
On July 29, the Otago Daily Times reported legal advice relating to Ong\u2019s behaviour had cost the council almost $10,000, on top of more than $17,000 in investigation costs associated with him.<\/p>\n
Documents released to the newspaper included findings from independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg, who said Ong\u2019s repeated breaches of confidentiality appeared \u201chighly likely\u201d to have been deliberate.<\/p>\n
On August 3, Ong was ejected from a council meeting for causing disorder during debate about possible council amalgamations.<\/p>\n
Ten days later, security escorted him from another meeting after Mayor Sophie Barker raised a point of order over what she considered a disrespectful Facebook post.<\/p>\n
Those incidents follow months of clashes between Ong and the council.<\/p>\n
In March, councillors voted 10-2 to accept the findings of an independent investigation that concluded Ong had seriously breached the council\u2019s code of conduct in his treatment of a staff member who had acted as a witness in another complaint.<\/p>\n
During the 30 minutes he was given to defend himself, Ong read a passage from Franz Kafka\u2019s The Trial.<\/p>\n
The council invited him to consider resigning. <\/p>\n
He refused.<\/p>\n
In May, he was found to have breached the code again after disclosing commercially sensitive information relating to a possible hotel development beside Forsyth Barr Stadium.<\/p>\n
He was suspended from all council committees and subcommittees for nine months, although he remains able to participate in full council meetings.<\/p>\n
A Dunedin City Council spokesperson said they were unable to comment while the process was ongoing.<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Fortune Theatre at 231 Stuart St, which Dunedin City councillor Benedict Ong has bid $88,888.88 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[282014,160421,83629,1550,2199,38290,37109,6788,18982,2082,2740,81346,296,1362,111,43,139,69,160422,2730,3587,3598,312,223,7069,25809],"class_list":["post-572223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-282014","tag-benedict","tag-bids","tag-centre","tag-city","tag-councillor","tag-councilowned","tag-dunedin","tag-embattled","tag-for","tag-former","tag-fortune","tag-into","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ong","tag-personal","tag-proposes","tag-proposing","tag-says","tag-the","tag-theatre","tag-turning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}