Geelong site nets $5m-plus as developers pile in

The prospect of at least half a dozen cranes working above Geelong’s skyline is giving confidence to local, external and offshore developers to invest in the city’s western wedge.

The latest evidence is the amount of interest in a 2012sqm city fringe site at 73-77 Mercer St, Geelong, which has sold to a local buyer following an expressions of interest campaign.

Darcy Jarman, Geelong West agents Tim Darcy and Simon Jarman handled the campaign, which ended in a confidential deal with a local party.

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“We had a good spread of interest — we had local interest, we had interest from external areas, predominantly from the development sector within Melbourne, but we also had offshore interest as well,” he says.

“By virtue of its size and its proximity in terms of its location and profile to the waterfront and city centre, it was a strategic site that attracted interest.

Developers and investors are absorbing more properties along the western fringe of central Geelong.

“We’ve had a lot of a strategic sites that have been absorbed in the past 12 to 24 months, key sites that have been purchased on market and off market.

“What the campaign demonstrated is that there is still very strong appetite for well positioned assets, whether they’re investment grade or development sites within Geelong.”

Darcy says during the campaign that he expected offers would come in between $4 million and $5 million for the site.

The Advertiser understands that some offers exceeded that mark.

The property is a direct neighbour to the Miramar apartment project in Cavendish St and is also next to the Winter & Taylor car dealership in Mercer St. James Morphy recently sold the Kia and Holden dealerships to Blood Motor Group but has retained ownership of the land.

An existing $67,980 a year lease to Mototech runs until 2020 at 73-77 Mercer St.

Cranes on the Geelong skyline. Picture: Alison Wynd.

The campaign underlines the amount of interest surrounding Geelong as a growth market and the amount of activity around the region.

“We’ve seen extraordinary activity in our urban growth areas, and we’re seeing extraordinary activity in our central area, and you only have to walk around the central part of Geelong, or if I look out my window from my office I can see three cranes,” Darcy says.

“By the end of the year we might have six or seven cranes in the sky.

“So, Geelong is very much perceived now as a very strong growth market, just by virtue of its geographic location, it’s accessibility to Melbourne and it’s attracting a lot of interest domestically but also commercially as well.

“Our base entry level in terms of housing here is substantially lower than Melbourne’s and that’s why it’s creating a real element of attraction of people that if they live here or live remotely and commute or relocate here from a work perspective, they are exposed to from a lifestyle perspective that things here can be far greater than what you’ve got in Melbourne and at a far cheaper cost.”

This article from the Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “Growth fuelling developers interest as strategic city site nets $5m-plus sale”.