Australian taxpayers may have to fork out millions to buy the land where the Sari Club once stood after the owners demanded compensation for lost income.
The site in Kuta has remained vacant for most of the 17 years since a car bomb destroyed the Sari Club in October 2002, minutes after another bomb exploded at the nearby Paddy's Bar, with 202 people killed in total.
Plans to redevelop the site with a five-storey restaurant complex were shelved in favour of a memorial 'Peace Park' last week after PM Scott Morrison intervened.
Mr Morrison met with members of the Bali Peace Park Association to put a stop to redevelopment, and he and Bill Shorten promised to help finance a memorial.
A tourist walks in front of the former Sari Club, the 2002 Bali bombing blast site in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, 26 April 2019
Plans to redevelop the site with a five-storey restaurant complex were shelved in favour of a memorial 'Peace Park' (pictured) last week after PM Scott Morrison intervened
But a new demand for millions of extra dollars from the site's owner, Sukamto Tjia, may jeopardise the project, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Bali Peace Park Association chairman David Napoli met with a representative for the owners on Monday, where they finally agreed on a sale price of about $4.9million.
However, Mr Napoli said the owners have now demanded between five and ten million in compensation for the income they will lose if the restaurant isn't built.
'I am very reluctant to even entertain their claims for compensation for the potential of lost income,' Mr Napoli said.
When Mr Napoli met with Mr Morrison last week, he said the PM indicated to him the Australian government was prepared to cover the shortfall to buy
