Great Ocean Rd general store stays in local hands
Busloads of international tourists regularly stop at Kennett River’s Koala Kafe General Store, but a local living within an hour of the Great Ocean Road pit stop has seen its value.
The Kennett River general store has sold after a quick campaign, with the rare commercial freehold opportunity on the Great Ocean Road not lost on a host of potential buyers.
The store and adjoining three-bedroom residence occupy the prime location near the beach and caravan park, with a great visual exposure to the tourist route that provides a steady stream of customers to the tenants operating the business.
Great Ocean Road Real Estate, Lorne agent Michael Coutts says the buyer, who has paid $925,000 for the freehold, will look to redevelop the property down the track.
“But he’ll keep it as it is. Probably for the next 10 years it will be as it is now and has been for 50 years,” Coutts says.
“Obviously it’s just the scarcity of commercial freehold in that precinct of the Great Ocean Road. You’ve got that shop there, you’ve got one at Wye River and the closest would be Lorne and Apollo Bay.”
The flat fenced 780sqm property at 15 Great Ocean Road, Kennett River includes the cafe, commercial kitchen and adjoining house, all just a few minutes’ walk from the beach, caravan park and river parkland.
The Kennett River Holiday Park is just across the road from general store which has parking directly out the front.
It last sold in 2013 for $683,000.
“It was the same as last time I sold it, which was about five years ago. I was inundated with inquiry. I was absolutely smashed with interest in it,” Coutts says.
“It’s such a little popular hub. It’s an area of the coast where the koala populations are prolific so all the international buses coming up the coast they’re all stopping there to have a break and let their travellers see these koalas.”
Coutts says the campaign was picked up nationally, with interested parties phoning from Sydney, but local knowledge came up trumps.
“He’s local within an hour of the shop,” Coutts says.
“He knew it relatively well and he would have been there a few times but so a long term resident within an hour of where that shop is.”
This article from The Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “Kennett River general store sold as local buyer leaps at rare commercial freehold opportunity”.
