Showroom carve up tipped as huge North Geelong retail site is snapped up
340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong, has been listed for sale.
Change is coming a landmark North Geelong retail site after it was sold to a Melbourne purchaser.
The former Melbourne Rd home to Ray’s Outdoors is expected to be carved into several individual showrooms to maximise to use on the 5600sq m site, Gartland, Geelong selling agent Michael De Stefano said.
The property at 340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong sold for $5.8m, Mr De Stefano said.
“It sold to a Melbourne purchaser who is likely to develop it into some showrooms,” he said.
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“We went for a process and we received several expressions of interest. We had expressions from local buyers, Melbourne and interstate so we had a wide range of locally, local and out of town.”
The former Melbourne Rd home to Ray’s Outdoors has remained dormant for close to a decade after Super Retail Group acquired the Geelong-founded business, and subsequently closed the landmark store.
Subsequent owners plans to occupy the fell through due to various circumstances.
340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong, has sold.
But Mr De Stefano said interest in leasing parts of the super-showroom was strong in the wake of the sale.
The .56ha site offers a floor area of 4750sq m with a commercial 2 zoning, with a street frontage of almost 150m.
“It’s very big for one for one tenancy,” Mr De Stefano said.
“We’ve already had, post-sale, people reaching out saying we will take a portion of the building for rent.
“But I think the owners have got people already teed up for it.”
340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong, has sold.
Mr De Stefano said there would be plenty of potential tenants waiting in the wings because of the lack of new showrooms with main road exposure in Geelong.
“You’d have a look at all the homemaker centre sites. They’re all full and there’s no new ones popping up any time soon.”
Mr De Stefano said the inquiry from outside Geelong was a good sign.
“The amount of interest from outside the region that we’re seeing continues to show Geelong is proving to be more and more popular as time goes on.
“If you ever look broadly across that big box, retail sector, there’s a massive amount of brands that don’t exist in Geelong that could easily fit there.”
340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong, has sold.
Super Retail Group acquired Ray’s Outdoors in 2010, which led to a number of store closures as the business merged Ray’s with its own BCF brand.
The red livery remains years after the last tents, camp chairs or fishing gear were sold.
But the store was also famous for its outdoor rock wall feature with an angler in a dinghy and the mechanical gorilla inside.
Founder Raymond Frost sold the landmark site in 2015 for $4.5m to an entity linked to Peter Stevens Motorcycles, which on-sold it three years later for $4.4m.
The last Rays stores were rebranded as Macpac Adventure Hubs after Super Retail Group acquired the New Zealand chain.
