Geelong building to tap into West End foodie trend

New owners of a Moorabool Street building hope to capitalise on the revitalisation of the city’s laneways.

The Geelong investor has paid $1.075 million for the building at 140 Moorabool Street.

Colliers International, Geelong agent Ben Young said the purchaser was looking to refurbish the entire building to return it to its former glory.

140 Moorabool Street, Geelong, has sold for $1,075,000.

The address most recently housed a Geelong newsagency, one of the businesses caught up in the closure of a section of Moorabool Street for the demolition of the landmark Belchers building.

The two-storey building occupies a 280sqm footprint with ground floor retail space and first-floor office space, which agent Sam Neale said had rear access to Shorts Place.

“The purchaser is looking to use the direct connection to the bustling Little Malop Street,” Neale said.

The building backs on to Shorts Place, in Geelong’s West End precinct.

“The confidence in this area is continuing to strengthen with demand for CBD properties being sen from both local investors and from further afield,” he said.

Shorts Place in a Geelong laneway that runs off the Little Malop Street west end district, populated by bars and eateries with on-street dining.

It’s also the location of a fight by some councillors to re-open a CBD footpath and allow vehicle traffic to turn from Moorabool Street into Little Malop Street.

An independent report raised safety concerns with the proposal.

140 Moorabool Street, Geelong, has sold for $1,075,000.

The Geelong Laneways Project has won a Landscape Architecture Award for Urban Design for Outlines Landscape Architecture. Pictures: Nick Stephenson

Cr Eddy Kontelj had called on the city to explore opening the pedestrian strip to vehicles as the council endorsed a motion to banish traffic from Little Malop Street between Moorabool Street and James Street from 10am-4am.

The Central Geelong Laneways Project, which has transformed the streetscape in the West End of Little Malop St won a landscape architecture award at the Victorian Landscape Architecture Awards in 2018.

This article from the Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “West End foodie precinct inspires plans Geelong building update”.