New life for bank building after buyer swoops on Geelong landmark
The three-storey former bank building at 130 Moorabool St, Geelong.
A former Geelong bank building it set to get a new lease on life after trading recently.
The three-storey former Commercial Bank of Australia building at 130 Moorabool Street, sold for $1.6m this month.
Colliers International, Geelong agent Andrew Lewis said a Melbourne-based buyer had secured the 232sq m property.
The rear of 130 Moorabool St, Geelong, faces Shorts Place.
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“130 Moorabool Street is an absolute ripper of a development opportunity,” Mr Lewis said.
“The purchaser is a builder-developer and they’re out of Melbourne but they are going to tody the building up for it will last for another 100 years.
The view from the rooftop.
“Then it will be used for retail and office. They’re doing that as a spec,” he said.
The building has sold after spending more than two years on the market.
While there is a ground floor tenant, much of the building, built in 1925, is in a dilapidated state.
Mr Lewis said there had been interest in the building over the time but not at the level to secure a deal.
There’s a lot of work required inside 130 Moorabool Street, Geelong.
“The market has strengthened over the last six months,” he said.
“It’s a lovely building, it just needed some work.”
The rear of the building faces Shorts Place, in Geelong’s West End precinct.
The Commercial Bank of Australia operated independently until the 1980s, when it merged with the Bank of New South Wales to become Westpac.
The Bank of Melbourne was the last institution to operate from the address.
The view from the rooftop overlooks Geelong’s Little Malop Street mall.
21 Ormond Road, East Geelong, is a tenanted investment property with a popular coffee shop and a separate residence.
The building offers 840sq m of floorspace and earns $45,000 in rent to a ground floor tenant.
Meanwhile, an East Geelong tenanted investment has been snapped up for close to its asking price.
The retail and residential property at 21 Ormond Road was listed with price hopes for $820,000.
It sold for close to that mark, Mr Lewis said.
Gartland Property auctioneer Nathan Ashton calls the auction at 173 Pakington Street, Geelong West. He passed the property in on a $1.3m bid before it sold later.
The shop is leased to coffee shop Common People, while a separate residence with rear access is also leased.
Earlier, a retail shop in the centre of Pakington Street, Geelong West, was snapped up after auction for $1.36m.
The shop at 173 Pakington Street attracted interest from two bidders but was passed in short of the reserve.
