Surf giant’s HQ sold in major Torquay deal

The Torquay base of global surf giant Boardriders has sold in a confidential settlement wrapped up this week.

The 1.95ha property at 27 Baines Crescent, Torquay, was traded by a consortium of Geelong private investors, who were cashing out after the US-owned surf giant announced it would relocate its head office to the Gold Coast.

Boardriders $1.6 million annual lease on the purpose-built facility, which pays all outgoings, including land tax, runs until 2021, giving the buyers plenty of time, and income, to consider plans for the property.

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Darcy Jarman, Geelong West, agent Tim Darcy handled the confidential transaction.

The current fit-out of the building is unmistakebly surf-inspired.

Darcy says he is unable to divulge the price or identity of the buyer, other than to say it was a Melbourne-based group with previous success in buying and selling sizeable commercial grade assets in the region.

However, he said during the campaign it would cost at least $20 million to buy 2ha of commercial land and develop a similar facility in Torquay today.

The property was expected to sell for significantly less than its replacement value.

An auditorium is part of the Boardriders complex.

Darcy says the commercial complex’s size and position in central Torquay balances the anticipated hit on value to potential investors of the major tenant vacating the building.

“It’s another positive endorsement of what’s happening in the Geelong region and the Surf Coast,” Darcy says.

“As an investment grade product it lives and dies on its intrinsic attributes and the fundamentals of the real estate, in central Torquay, which would never be able to be replicated.”

The Quiksilver head office was built in the late 1990s.

“A number saw it as an opportunistic offering, underpinned with strong income for at least three years.

“The improvements, which are specialised to house specific requirement for a headquarters are too good to dismiss.

“The long-term future is of a commercial nature, there might be some variance to that.”