Reserve smashed for Newtown post office

Four buyers were keen to put their stamp on a rare opportunity to secure a retail site in Newtown’s Pakington St retail strip.

The buyers contested the single-storey freehold property at 314 Pakington St where Newtown’s licensed post office has delivered the main for years.

Whitford, Newtown agent Tony Young said the 231sqm property sold for $930,000 on Wednesday.

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The price was about $300,000 over Young’s expectations for the property during the campaign of between $600,000 and $660,000.

“A local family bought it to land bank for the future,” Young says.

“There were four bidders in all. It was quite hotly contested and a fairly big crowd — it was a great auction,” he said.

The freehold home to Newtown’s post office was the first retail property to be traded on the popular strip in more than 12 months.

The existing lease on the Commercial 1 space expires in April, 2019 but the post office is set to remain beyond that date.

The commercial property at 314 Pakington St, Newtown, has sold for $930,000.

“Barry (the owner of the licensed post office) has a further five-year option that he intends to take up,” Young says.

“The new owners are happy to have the current tenants stay on and will look to do something with it down the track.”

The post office includes 75sqm of retail space, plus 62sqm of storage, office and amenities.

It’s on the east side of the street opposite Chilwell Primary School.

Young said before the auction that the site’s flexibility for buyers was its best attribute.

The single0storey shop is on its own freehold title with rear access to Chickweed St, giving buyers the options to activate other plans for the site, including demolishing the existing building and constructing a purpose-build office complex.

The Newtown shopping strip has expanded in recent years, including a two-storey retail and office complex at 343 Pakington St and Whitford’s own two-storey office building at 357 Pakington St.

“Basically, you know what’s happened with this end of Pakington St over the past five years, it’s going to be hard to imagine what it will look like in the next five years,” he says.

“The extreme river end of Pakington St with the arts precinct and lots of dance studios and acting studios is becoming a creative hub, so it’s becoming an exciting part of Newtown.”

This article from the Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “Post office sells $300K over price hopes as buyers keen to put stamp on rare retail opportunity”.