Geelong CBD 12-storey tower site finds buyers
A 1447sq m property at 16 Gheringhap St, Geelong was offered for sale with permitted plans for a 12-storey office building.
A new entrant to Geelong’s CBD development market has emerged to secure a prime commercial block with a permit for a 12-storey building.
Knight Frank Melbourne selling agents James Thorpe, Paul Lillis and Stephen Kelly secured the deal with the Australian developer for the property at 16 Gheringhap St.
The 1447sq m property attracted interest above $11 million as demand for development-ready sites in Geelong rises.
The agents revealed the sale netted a land rate of more than $7800 per square metre.
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The property is immediately adjacent to Geelong’s Civic Precinct, where Quintessential Equity is developing the City of Greater Geelong’s corporate headquarters, with approved plans for a second, privately owned commercial building also on the site.
Headquarters for WorkSafe, the National Disability Insurance Agency, health insurer GMHBA and the Transport Accident Commission are anchor tenants in the precinct in the north-west part of the CBD.
An artist’s image of the proposed 12-storey office building at 16 Gheringhap St, Geelong.
While the strategic corner site has a permit approved for the 12-storey commercial tower, developers were expected to explore central Geelong’s flexible Activity Centre zoning which allows for a broad range of alternative development outcomes.
Mr Kelly said the campaign showed there are a lot of new interest keen to invest in the Geelong market.
“What we saw is a significantly larger number of interested parties that now see Geelong as a destination where they would like to undertake development,” he said.
The campaign targeted groups already in Geelong but the majority of interest was from parties that had never purchased in the city before, he said.
A 1447sq m property at 16 Gheringhap St, Geelong was offered for sale with permitted plans for a 12-storey office building.
“That is something that has changed maybe as result of lots of people are moving down that way.
“It’s a massive growth area, I see Geelong as another CBD.
“The population growth and what’s happening in Armstrong Creek and down to Torquay, the population growth is significant and developers have twigged and they’re wanting opportunities down there.”
The property presented as Geelong’s most well located development site, on a prominent and highly strategic corner position at the intersection of Gheringhap St and Bayley St.
The sale is the latest on a growing list of exceptional development site results achieved in the heart of the Geelong CBD over recent times.
Mr Kelly said the result further solidifying the market as a genuinely high quality commercial destination.
Recent major CBD sales in include a 1827sq m future development site containing an existing childcare centre that sold for $5.3 million, a 900sq m major corner retail site at 114-122 Moorabool St for $6.9 million, while a Preston-based developer swooped on the silos above Mercer St in an auction in September, paying $1.25 million for the nine-storey structure, which was the subject of a now-lapsed approved plan for 40 one-bedroom apartments.
