Buyers take aim early at Target’s former North Geelong HQ

Interest from buyers in Target’s North Geelong head office has exceeded expectations in the first week of the sales campaign.

Knight Frank agent Tim Grant said the positive start to the expressions of interest campaign which runs to December 6 included a number of parties booking inspections of the 3.77ha property at 12-14 Thompson Rd, North Geelong.

While the property is being marketed as a strategic landholding with a development upside, several parties are looking to use the existing 12,223sqm office building.

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Target will vacate the site in the first week of December as it relocates to a new head office at Williams Landing.

Grant says price hopes for the property are above $10 million.

Target’s former head office at 12-14 Thompson Rd, North Geelong is selling, with a quoted range around $10 million.

“We’ve had a couple of groups that have looked it that would be interesting in keeping or using the existing improvements on there because it’s obviously a sizeable parcel of land with a lot of office space,” Grant says.

“We’ve also had a number of groups that have looked at it purely on a redevelopment basis.

“That would mean they would probably end up using the improvements for a period of time to generate a short term income subject to the rezone going through.”

Target’s former head office occupies a 3.77ha site opposite a residential development on the Geelong Golf Club.

The property is surrounded by a mix of residential, aged care, retail and industrial land and has been highlighted for a mixed use rezone.

The Geelong Advertiser revealed in August that Target had identified medium-density housing or smaller scale offices as suitable uses for the property, which is opposite the Geelong Golf Club Residential Estate and neighbours the old Geelong Saleyards site, where City of Greater Geelong has indicated it wants to pursue a mixed residential development that includes heritage elements of the livestock exchange.

“At this stage its probably exceeded our expectations. That could be a reflection that it’s the first week of the campaign,” Grant says.

Target’s former head office is in a prime location close to central Geelong.

“There has been a lot of interest from people who are based in the Geelong area. I suspect they’ve seen it and jumped on it straight away. We’ve had a number of inspections already.”

“There’s a lot of positivity (in Geelong) there’s a lot of good positive stories coming out about upgrades to infrastructure and all that kind of stuff.”

This article originally from the Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “Buyers on Target early for former North Geelong head office site”.