This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
Business is booming for local entrepreneur Peter Seal’s cycle and fitness centre thanks to a move to a new location on the Mornington Peninsular.
The new Sealy’s Cycle & Fitness business, which opened this month, features an expanded cycle range with extra local sales and service staff at the 384 sqm retail premises in the new homemaker centre on Nepean Highway, which also faces Bungower Road.
“I have taken a 45 year old Mornington bicycle business and moved it to Leighton Properties new Peninsula Lifestyle Homemaker Centre and quadrupled the space I had,” Sealy’s Cycle and Fitness owner Peter Seal said.
“The only retail opportunity for my business which could cater for such a dramatic expansion in floor space on the Peninsula in a retail environment was this Centre.
“We didn’t want a stand alone store or a large warehouse-type shop in an industrial area, so the facilities at Peninsular Lifestyle are just what we were after,” he added.
Seal said the new Peninsular Lifestyle Homemaker Centre would offer Sealy’s clients the added benefit of a licensed cafe while they wait to have their bikes repaired.
The 32,000 sqm Peninsula Lifestyle Centre opened in mid-2005 and is now more than 70% occupied or under negotiation with tenants.
Peninsula Lifestyle Centre is the only Homemaker centre servicing the Mornington Peninsula and its catchment extends from Mt Eliza to Tyabb and south to Hastings and Sorrento/Portsea.
Market research on the Mornington Peninsula by the centre’s developer Leighton Properties indicated that there was a $351 million of annual homemaker spending in 2005 with the market growing by 25% by 2012.
Seal said he expects customers will come from all over the Mornington Peninsula as the Peninsula Lifestyle Centre plugs a gap in the retail offer that had long been neglected.
“We have a trade catchment of 138,000 people with a further 37,500 holiday and weekend people regularly visiting the peninsular, which provides a great environment in which to grow our business,” he said.
Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula has long been a popular location for beach houses and holidays but in the past decade has become a focus for sea changers and housing prices have rocketed.
The area will see an additional 6,400 new homes built in the area in the next 7-8 years driving consumer demand for white goods, kitchenware, soft furnishings home furniture, and bicycles and fitness equipment.
PLC is owned by a Mirvac Trust.
By Kathryn O’Meara
