AFTER three decades developing land in Canberra, Ron Bell will retire in January, leaving an impressive mark on the urban landscape of the national capital.

But he’s not going to miss dealing with Canberra’s bureaucracy.

“It’s not an easy place to work anymore,” says Ron, who has been development manager at Canberra Investment Corporation (CIC Australia) for the past 10 years.

He says one of the problems is that the ACT Government spends too much time listening to minority groups, a problem he found particularly frustrating on the recent development of the Ambassador apartments at Deakin.

“The Ambassador development started 10 years ago. The public consultation period should have gone for six months, but it probably went for 18 to 20 months,” he says.

In contrast, he says CIC has been working on Googong in NSW.

“It’s not a suburb, it’s a whole new town with schools and medical centres and shopping centres and to develop in that area is going to be much easier than trying to develop in Canberra.”

Ron came to Canberra with the Air Force, went to college and got a diploma in management, then entered the workforce as a salesperson before graduating to owning his own company, Bell Management Group.

“I had a brief stint on the Legislative Assembly, which I have to say, I didn’t enjoy. I’m not really a party person, I don’t think. That wasn’t me,” he says.

It was as chief executive of Housing Industry Association ACT/Southern NSW, a job he held for about eight years, when the “real excitement started”.

“It was through that position that I struck a friendship with Tom Uren [former Minister for Territories before self-government],” he says.

“There was a land shortage and Tom entrusted me to develop some land in Latham and Florey.

“I formed a builders’ co-operative and we provided land for first-home buyers and low-income earners that has not been done since. That went exceptionally well.”

In 1989, the HIA stepped back from land development. At the time, Ron was developing a parcel of land in Tuggeranong, so he left the HIA and took on the development as a job.

“We then did another five joint ventures with the ACT Government after doing two with the Federal Government and that provided a lot of land,” he says.

“We were the first private company to undertake land development in the Territory.

“It’s where I got a passion for being in development and during 13 years with my own company, we developed over 3000 blocks of land, built 400 terraces and apartments both here and in Sydney.”

Ron was doing consultancy work for CIC and discovered they were planning to advertise a position that he was interested in.

“That was about 10 years ago and it’s been a very happy relationship with a company that is steeped in integrity and corporate image,” he says.

So why is he retiring now?

“I think a lightbulb comes on and says: ‘It’s time’. Time to pull the pin and say goodbye,” he says.

And while he feels relieved to be retiring, he probably won’t be idle for long.

“I can’t do nothing, I’ll have to do something so I’ll probably head towards a charity at some point,” he says.

Ron will finish at CIC on January 10, the day after the PM’s XI cricket match, which CIC sponsors.

“The last 30 years have been a good time in my life and a really interesting one,” he says.

“As chief executive of the Housing Industry Association, I changed a culture there that wasn’t terribly healthy.

“The work that I’ve done with CIC, with land development and housing has worked. It has been profitable and people have liked whatever we have done so that’s a nice feeling to go away with.”

So does the man who is responsible for sizeable chunks of Florey, Banks, Dunlop, Calwell, Isabella Plains, Palmerston, Ngunnawal feel like he’s made his mark on Canberra?

“There’s a stamp there,” he smiles.