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News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Geelong CBD freehold offers multiple income options
Geelong's emerging laneways could become the key to unlocking the value of a CBD landmark formerly home to Duffs Jewellers. The two-storey freehold is up for grabs with a new expressions of interest campaign to test the market for city centre real estate. Colliers, Geelong agents Jonathon Lumsden, Ned Tansey and Jackson Carrick are handling the sale for 134 Moorabool St, Geelong, with offers closing August 14. Mr Lumsden said price expectations were $2m-plus. The 180sq m ground floor comprises retail and office space, along with amenities and the original strongroom. The first floor has been converted to a luxury four bedroom, three-bathroom apartment, flooded with natural light from an atrium. The property is opposite Geelong's Bright & Hitchcocks building where developer Hamilton Group has started a multimillion dollar redevelopment. 'The owners ran their own business from there – they've closed that office down and are using it for storage themselves while they were running upstairs as their Airbnb,' Mr Lumsden said. 'Since they've got other interests, now is the time to divest.' The building offers the potential for a new owner to create dual income streams, and activate frontages to Moorabool St and Shorts Place at the rear, Mr Lumsden said. 'It also gives someone the potential to reconfigure the ground floor so they could activate a space with direct access of Moorabool St, and then activate a space that's accessed off Shorts Place,' Mr Lumsden said. Geelong developer Bill Votsaris has already unlocked Shorts Place for neighbouring projects, including a 24-hour Anytime Fitness gym. 'I think there's some appeal to that, to create those dual access points. Does that mean someone looks to do something more retail on the Moorabool St frontage and then more hospitality from Shorts Place? 'There's a few different things you can those around and meanwhile you can maintain that Airbnb, whether it's leased out through Airbnb or you put a long-term tenant in there.' Mr Lumsden said one potential buyer had flagged reconfiguring the first floor into commercial office space and then look to activate the retail space on the ground floor. 'You could easily give the ground floor a facelift. That's a pretty simple process.' Interest has been from parties in Geelong and Melbourne, Mr Lumsden said. 'I must say the interest that's coming through are generally parties that we've seen look at other options in the CBD. 'I think people can still see the CBD is going through a bit of adjustment and they can see the investment that other landowners are investing in the CBD. 'Opposite with Cam Hamilton's development and with what Bill Votsaris is doing in Little Malop St, there's good stories to tell within that precinct. 'We got through property cycles, Moorabool St is the main thoroughfare running north-south to Belmont and attracts an enormous amount of traffic and with the property cycle we're going through at the moment where you're not buying at the peak of the market, I believe there's long-term growth to get out of it.'
News.com.au
12-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
$32m Mill deal reveals major players interest in Geelong
Deep interest in a landmark riverbank property demonstrates Geelong's growing maturity as a market in the eyes of major property players, the agents handing the sale revealed. Geelong's Hamilton Group paid more than $32m for the 29,280sq m Newtown property at 403 Pakington St, which had a developable net saleable area of 42,757sq m, and a mixed use permit already in place. The campaign drew interest from potential suitors across Geelong, nationally and internationally. $130m Geelong village to build 195 homes for downsizers The permit allows for the construction of 314 apartments, 29 townhouses, as well as commercial and retail spaces. But Hamilton Group managing director Cam Hamilton revealed a new vision for the site, pivoting to a commercial use for the existing historic mill building, focusing on retail, hospitality and office use, and pushing ahead with the four or five seven-storey apartment blocks on the remainder of the land. The new vision would include up to about 150 apartments, he said, less than half offered in the approved plan, which would be a blow to chasing Geelong's near 2051 housing target of around 130,000 homes. The sale was negotiated by Oliver Hay, Hamish Burgess, Joe Kairouz and Leon Ma of Cushman & Wakefield on behalf of a private investor who has held the assets for decades. Mr Hay reported strong interest from residential developers, retirement and aged care providers and medium-term investors. 'This transaction underlines the strength and maturity of Geelong's property market,' Mr Hay said. 'We received strong interest nationally and internationally, but the fact a local buyer emerged successful reflects deep local confidence.' Mr Hay said major players were more confident about investing in Geelong as the local economy grew and diversified. 'What we experienced was institutional, local, offshore developers who look at Geelong as a viable market now,' he said. 'We had good bidding depth at that level and that shows a kind of a market that's maturing. 'If you had done that five years ago or three years ago, I don't think you would have the same kind of confidence for a ticket size that big.' Mr Hay said the region's growth, particularly its median house prices, had drawn eyes to Geelong. 'That was the best part of Geelong and people are seeing there's multiple uses there as well, like retirement land lease communities are popular around that area.' Mr Burgess said it's uncommon to see a site of this size and with such comprehensive approvals come to market. 'The sale, which was unconditional immediately after the campaign closed, demonstrates continued demand for well-located, development-ready land in regional centres,' he said. The transformation in Newtown 19th century former industrial heart is emblematic of Geelong's economic diversification, powered by population growth, KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said. New data shows people relocating from capital cities to live in Geelong was the biggest portion of the region's population growth. Healthcare is Geelong's biggest employment sector, with 30,000 workers from doctors, nurses to NDIS workers and aged care, now representing 17 per cent of the workforce. And Geelong's industrial base has increased, as manufacturing jobs represented 9 per cent of the region's workforce. But the biggest growing industry in the past 12 months was accommodation and food services, while jobs ads for professionals and services doubled between 2019 and 2024. 'That's reflecting that growing population (in Geelong),' Mr Rawnsley said, speaking at a UDIA function in Geelong this week. 'There's a real private sector renaissance coming through in Geelong.'
News.com.au
08-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
New vision for Newtown mill after $32m sale to prominent developer
Hamilton Group is set to reshape the vision for a massive Barwon River development site where more than 300 apartments have been approved at Newtown. Managing director Cam Hamilton confirmed the developer had acquired the landmark former woollen mill at 403 Pakington St, where the approved mixed use development was designed to reshape the urban landscape at the river end of Newtown's shopping strip. Contracts for the circa-$32m deal were signed recently, but it seems the developers are wasting little time turning the project around. Mr Hamilton revealed the new vision would pivot the existing mill building to a project similar to the Federal Mills precinct, but with increased focus on retail and hospitality. The 29,280sq m property would allow for substantial off-street carparking to support the precinct initially, which he said would move underground as the future medium-rise apartment projects moved into construction phase in the next five to seven years. He estimated the new project, which would require a fresh planning permit, would include between 100 and 150 apartments, significant fewer than the 314 apartments and 29 townhouses Geelong's council approved for the existing scheme last year. Cushman & Wakefield agents Oliver Hay, Hamish Burgess, Joe Kairouz and Leon Ma were tasked with finding a buyer for the property through an international expressions of interest campaign. But Mr Hamilton said the group had been eyeing-off the site for decades, having bought the woolstore building opposite at 400 Pakington St in 1995. 'We've had a couple of discussions, years back, but it wasn't sale at that point,' he said. Mr Hamilton said he'd seen rising demand from retail and hospitality operators at the river end of Pakington St precinct, while the mill complex offered about 15,000sq m of floorspace, substantially more than the 4000sq m on offer at 400 Pakington St and Rutland St. 'The interest that I started to get towards the end (of leasing 400 Pakington St) was a lot on the retail focus, and unfortunately we'd leased a lot of the street-facing spaces already,' he said. 'We're going to do a commercial development in the existing building, probably a bit more of a focus on retail and hospitality rather than just purely office. 'Then we're going to look at some apartments, and we'd have four or five blocks of seven storey apartment-type buildings facing the river.' Mr Hamilton said the initial focus would be on the mill complex. The first apartment tower could be seven years away. 'We're adopting a similar design (to the approved project) at the rear of the site, but really focusing on keeping the bones of the (mill) building itself intact,' he said. 'Rather than going out of the top of the existing buildings, we just will restore them, and add arcades and internal gardens as we do on all of our other sites.' Mr Hamilton said the apartments could be a built-to-rent project. Hamilton Group is consulting with Jam Architects, which designed the initial project for the site. The property opened as the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Woollen Mill in 1920. The last textile manufacturer on site, Geelong Textiles and Geelong Dyeing relocating after being acquired by Australian Textile Investments in 2022.
