Buyer strikes on huge Belmont site as council sell-off continues
A 1.5ha council-owned site at 17 Reynolds Rd, Belmont, was sold after being passed in at auction.
Geelong’s council has sold another major asset but it could be decades before the future of the Belmont site is revealed.
Buyers negotiated to purchase the commercial land in Belmont after a private auction this week.
The 1.5ha property at 17 Reynolds Rd, Belmont, was passed in at $5.5m at the private auction at the City’s Wurriki Nyal administration building, before selling at the reserve price later.
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The property includes a commercially leased ten pin bowling centre, a maternal and child health centre and 175 carparking spaces.
As a condition of the sale, the new owners must ensure the maternal health centre remains in operation under a lease at the site for 20 years.
It’s the second of four major properties the council has earmarked for sale this financial year.
In December, Colliers agents auctioned the Civic Centre Car Park in central Geelong for $22.6m.
A 1.5ha council-owned site at 17 Reynolds Rd, Belmont, was sold after being passed in at auction.
Colliers, Geelong agent Ben Young said the size, location and flexible zoning drew significant interest in the Reynolds Rd property.
“We had a lot of interest in the site from local, Melbourne and interstate parties looking at the property,” he said
Though the buyer didn’t reveal their intentions for the property, Mr Young said it was a land banking opportunity to develop down the track.
“It’s such a large parcel of land in a hot residential pocket of Belmont that’s got proximity to Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre, to Deakin University and Epworth hospital,” he said.
A 1.5ha council-owned site at 17 Reynolds Rd, Belmont, was sold after being passed in at auction.
“There is a lot going for it – you’ve got public transport at the front door, schools next door. it’s got a lot of upside to it.”
Mr Young said the mixed use zoning have the owners plenty of options for the site, which is wedged between disability and aged car support organisation Gen U’s headquarters, a Barwon Health facility in the former South Barwon Civic Centre, and the Christian College junior school.
“They can look at going a multi-level residential apartment building on the site as well, (with) a mixture of commercial on the ground floor and first floor,” Mr Young said.
The maternal and child health centre will retain a 20-year lease on the site under the deal.
“It depends on how they choose to balance the site.”
Mr Young said the owners of the Ozpin Ten Pin Bowling Centre had signed a 10-year lease on the building, with another five year option.
“They have to honour that lease,” he said.
Mayor Trent Sullivan said two more properties earmarked for sale this financial year were the Busport Car Park at 30-54 Brougham St, Geelong, and land at 200 Princes Hwy, Corio, which includes a KFC restaurant.
“Revenue from these sales will help to some degree in meeting the significant budget challenges we are facing in the years ahead.”
Mr Sullivan said the sales formed an important piece of the council’s affordability in its long-term budget planning and would help provide improved community infrastructure for our growing population.
