Overseas Investment Office

 

PHOTO: JO MCKENZIE-MCLEAN The new Freshchoice Cromwell supermarket opened in February 2018.

Australian supermarket operator Progressive Enterprises paid $280 million in 2017 for a long-term leasehold of land for a Freshchoice supermarket in Cromwell, the Overseas Investment Office has revealed.

The price paid has been released two years after the purchase was OIO approved, in 2017. The price was withheld in 2017 under the Official Information Act.

OIO group manager, Venessa Horne, said the OIO regularly reviewed historic decisions where information was withheld under the act and released the information that should no longer be withheld.

The seller of the 0.4223 hectares of land (just over an acre) at 1-3 Isles Street, Cromwell, was the Frost Family Foundation. Trustees were Christine Frost and Murray  Frost, the OIO decision said. The applicant for OIO approval was Wholesale Distributors, a subsidiary of Progressive Enterprises.

READ MORE VIA STUFF