$100m Avalon site set to take off again

A PRIME flagship 148.50-hectare Point Wilson site has hit the market again after it failed to change hands last year, offering an institutional scale property on the gateway to the Greater Avalon Employment Precinct.

With expectations of $95 to $100 million, 1860 Princes Freeway boasts more than 2.15 kilometres of frontage to the freeway and with its Farming zoning has the potential to deliver a commercial or industrial development (STCA).

Paul Callanan and Peter Sagar from LAWD have been appointed to sell the asset via an expressions of interest campaign, on behalf of the same vendors who moved to sell the property last year.

The same property was listed last May by Knight Frank last year with expectations of $100 million, on behalf of a family who held the site for half a century.

While last December, the site was identified for potential Industrial and Light Industrial uses within the VPA Co-Design Workshop.

The asset sits within a state significant employment precinct, the Greater Avalon Employment Precinct, which is a Priority PSP as per the Victorian Housing Statement.

The precinct is located about 20 kilometres north east from Geelong and 55 kilometres south west of Melbourne’s CBD.

With the site sitting close to the Northern Geelong Growth Area, part of the largest urban growth project in regional Victoria, which has the potential to welcome more than 47,800 new residents

It also boasts close proximity to Melbourne’s second international airport, Avalon Airport, which sits just 5km away. With rail connections via the Western Interstate Freight Terminal and sea connections via the future Port of Melbourne at Avalon.

The site will also be near to the MAB’s planned $3.3 billion business park across 780 hectares adjacent to Avalon Airport.

Closer to the Melbourne CBD, a permit-approved build-to-rent development site is expected to generate more than $45 million, according to LAWD.

While the ASX-listed agricultural herbicides company, Nufarm, recently sold a shovel-ready 5.3-hectare western Melbourne industrial site for $32 million to a local developer.

While in the land market, new land sales in Melbourne and Geelong lifted by 15% in the first quarter this year, thanks to developer incentives, stable interest rates and expectations of a future rate cut.

While the country’s land market is increasingly two-tiered with the gap widening between the well performing markets in South East Queensland and Adelaide against the more cautious Victorian market.

The expressions of interest campaign for 1860 Princes Freeway, Point Wilson is scheduled to close on 21 November 2024.