A sustainable art precinct 

A few months ago, I secured a lease on some land on the edge of the city on King St. 

I figured out I could run a carpark and then use that money to regularly paint up all the buildings surrounding it. 

There are amazing walls – it would be perfect for an urban art park, or even festivals. So, once the lease was signed, I began to work on the space.

I got four cubic tonnes of crushed rock, fixed the fences, put in lights, and spent a couple of weeks creating a beautiful art space and carpark. 

I planned to use the money from the carpark to pay for boom lifts and paint to paint up the area with all the best artists. It was all very exciting; I even had a carparking app company on board. 

Last Friday night, September 8 was its first day open and it looked awesome, and I knew once it was painted it would be a very special space. 

But during that night I got a call from the car park company that we partnered with to say that they had received a call from somebody that claimed to be the owner of the land. We had sent the lease and all the documents to the carpark company, so they weren’t too concerned – they said that this has happened before and has never really been a problem. 

So, we left the carpark open and began to think about the first paint up. However, on Tuesday I got a call from the police stating that the owner was thinking about pressing charges. It was real; the whole thing was a scam – all the documents, the lease, the lot. I had spent weeks fixing up someone else’s land. 

I worked it out with the owner, he wasn’t going to press charges, but all the hard work had to be reversed and the park closed. I could not believe that someone would come up with such an elaborate scam. 

I thought I had worked out the perfect sustainable art park, it would have been funded by the car park and changed regularly, creating a new and important art precinct. 

I guess my advice to you is to triple check everything; I am pretty good with documents etc., but some people are crappy and spend a lot of time and energy trying to make a living off other people’s misery. •

Be careful, it won’t stop me from taking risks and trying new projects, but I will be hyper-vigilant in the future.