Park and Ride Plaza: LDA expects more interest in fifth auction today

No bids were received for 54 shops and restaurants in last two auctions.

LAHORE:

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) will hold its fifth auction today (Tuesday) of commercial space at the Liberty Park and Ride Plaza, with officials confident that it will not meet the same fate as the last two auctions, which did not receive a single bid.

Some 54 shops and three restaurant spaces will be up for sale at the auction, which starts at the LDA Community Centre at 239-A, New Muslim Town, at 10am. These include 15 shops in the basement, 19 on the ground floor, 20 shops and two restaurants on the first floor, and a roof-top restaurant.

The LDA sold 24 shops in the first two auctions held back in 2011. But the third auction in late 2011 and the fourth in 2012 did not receive any bids.

An LDA official told The Express Tribune that there were a few reasons for this. Before the third auction, he said, a petition had been moved in the Lahore High Court alleging that the plaza was built on a green belt. This raised the prospect that the plaza would be declared illegal, so traders had become wary of buying shops, the official said.

The fourth auction, he said, had failed because of a dispute at the time with traders’ unions. Shops and restaurants located near the plaza had demanded that the ban on street parking in the area be lifted, as it was hurting their businesses. The unions had instructed their members not to participate in the auction, he said.

The LDA official said that the ban on street parking had been lifted, so this problem had been resolved. The petition at the LHC had not gotten anywhere, so concerns about that had also waned, he added.

Another reason the LDA expects a number of bids this time is that there has been a steep increase in commercial property prices, he said. The reserve price for the shops and restaurants up for auction is well below the market price for commercial property, he added.

The Park and Ride Plaza is an 11-floor structure located on 3.17 kanals and cost Rs677 million to construct. It has parking space for 308 cars at any one time, a backup generator and two capsule lifts. It contains security devices such as road blockers, car scanners, CCTV surveillance, a public address system, fire alarms and fire-safety equipment, audio links and emergency buttons that allow direct contact with a security booth or the local police station, and open stairwells and ramps. It also has accessibility features for the handicapped.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2013.