Large scale industrial warehouse plans revealed for Geelong’s north
Artists renders of the warehouses proposed for industrial land at 220 Heales Rd, Lara. Picture: Watson Young
A Geelong developer has revealed plans for 15 substantial industrial warehouses in a key employment precinct in the city’s north.
Montgomery Property is seeking planning approval for the $125m development to subdivide a 26ha property at 220 Heales Rd.
The land has already been subdivided into four 6ha lots at Kinetic Court, Lara, however a leasing campaign for two lots revealed the market was keen for smaller industrial landholdings, leading the proponents back to the drawing board.
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Artists renders of the warehouses proposed for industrial land at 220 Heales Rd, Lara. Picture: Watson Young
Director Dean Montgomery said the plans, which have been submitted to Geelong’s council, would see the rear two lots halved to create four 3ha lots, with the two front blocks split further to create 10. The development would include 15 industrial warehouses overall.
“We’ve had two of the four blocks on the market for quite some time and we just haven’t had anyone showing interest in lot sizes that big,” Mr Montgomery said.
“But then we have a lot of people saying ‘do you have two or three hectares?”
Mr Montgomery said there’s a real shortage of available industrial land in Geelong between 1ha and 3ha, which is the size businesses are seeking.
“A lot of them are Geelong-based and they’ve just got nowhere to expand into,” he said.
“We didn’t want to go down to 1ha because we know that area out there is for larger industry. “It’s all about getting the site activated and getting as many businesses in there as we can.”
Prospective businesses could buy lots to develop themselves, but it’s more likely the developers would build the warehouses and lease them.
Images used for marketing the existing large lots at 220 Heales Rd, Lara.
“We want to hold as much of the land out there as we can. It’s just a matter of meeting the market in some way,” Mr Montgomery said.
“It’s a great long-term investment just given its location.”
The site is zoned Industrial 2, which prohibits retail among other uses and is next to a Viva Energy LPG terminal.
Urban Geelong’s market ready land stocks are estimated at 254ha in March 2024; of which 78 per cent is within the Geelong Ring Road precinct.
Vacant land supply in established precincts in urban Geelong is very limited and is becoming increasingly scarce.
The Heales Rd site is bigger on its own than all the vacant market-ready industrial land supply across central and southern Geelong.
Montgomery Property also holds a separate 55,00sq m property in Innovation Drive, next to the freeway, where a planning permit allows 14 warehouses.
These smaller properties would span from 830sq m to 5173sq m.
“We’ve just given the green light on building the road out there,” he said.
