Ballarat Lifestyle Centre could mark huge deal for region
A Ballarat property poised to top $12m is expected to become one of the city’s priciest commercial real estate transactions to date.
But it’s “only a small piece” of a recently renewed pocket that could be worth a staggering $200m in its entirety, with COVID-19 driving buyers to Victoria’s third biggest regional city.
The Ballarat Lifestyle Centre at 29 Cherry Flat Road, Delacombe, is being sold off by the Troon Group after opening just last year.
Stonebridge Property Group’s Justin Dowers is working on the sale after facilitating the developers’ purchase of the land and an adjoining block when it was just “paddocks” in 2015.
At the time, Troon Group paid about $20m for a sprawling allotment that is now home to the Delacombe town centre, on top of an undisclosed figure for the land where the 1.17ha Lifestyle Centre and a neighbouring 1.7ha Bunnings were now located.
“This site is sitting next to a Bunnings which would be up around $40m and the town centre which could be $100m,” Mr Dowers said.
“And with the Bupa and the McDonalds it would be $200m. In the scheme of things, $12m is only a small piece of it.
“They (the Troons) backed themselves in and it is thriving.”
With COVID-19 making regional Victoria “a lot more attractive” as more people look to regional areas with a work-from-home mentality, the sale of the retail hub on Cherry Flat Road is also expected to benefit from debt becoming cheaper over the past seven months.
Colliers International’s Mike Crittenden is also working on the listing and said he expected the buyer would likely be a high-net-worth individual or a syndicate keen to cash in on the property’s combined $740,490 in rent a year.
Tenants include The Salvation Army, Autobarn, RB Sellars and Beds R Us.
The Quest serviced apartments building in Central Ballarat was another of the city’s priciest property sales.
“There is significant pent-up demand from Victorian high-net-worth buyers for assets like this,” Mr Crittenden said.
“But we have also had a lot of Victorians buying into NSW and Queensland and vice-versa.”
He added that it was unlikely prospective buyers would get another chance at a similar property any time soon, with few similar in Ballarat and the Troon Group having no intention of selling any other assets.
CoreLogic records show the 4.87ha Wendouree Homemaker Centre fetched $27.1m in 2014.
Other substantial sales include a more than $10m deal for the Quest serviced apartments building in Central Ballarat, but the suburb of Delacombe’s highest previous price on record is $3m — though off-record sales have gone higher.
The Ballarat Lifestyle Centre officially hits the market on Thursday and is expected to be sold before Christmas.
This article from the Herald Sun originally appeared as “COVID-19 could drive one of Ballarat’s biggest ever sales”.
