Pelligra acquires 96ha Avalon fish farm site
EXCLUSIVE
Pelligra Group has purchased a 96 hectare site abutting Avalon Airport with significant underlying land value and likely long-term commercial development upside.
The Avalon property on Avalon Road stretches south to Avalon Beach Boat Ramp.
It surrounds a row of modest, timber and fibro cement homes (pictured, top) which have been the scene for some television shows and occasionally come up for lease – on Avalon Foreshore Rd.
The holding made headlines in April when Danish company Aqua Partners Australia sought a $65 million capital injection to buy it for developing a land-based fish farm on part of it.
That proposal – with the potential to produce up to 12,000 tonnes of product annually – will proceed from next year, Pelligra chairman Ross Pelligra said, as will new industrial-based agricultural structures.
The developer would also invest in technologies to suit existing and potential occupiers – the goal being for Australia, via this site, to make up ground lost in recent years to fishing industries offshore, particularly in Asia.
Avalon is about 20 kilometres north east of Geelong.
The acquisition comes a week after Pelligra launched a leasing campaign for a major medical and healthcare hub at the ex-Calvary Wakefield hospital in Adelaide’s CBD (story continues below).
Casting a wider net … site suits other uses
As well as adjoining the airport, the Avalon site is close to Corio Quay – giving at least part it some long-term development prospects as an industrial park even though the zoning doesn’t yet allow for it.
A major housing estate perhaps around manufactured islands is a more ambitious planning idea, but executed on waterfront sites like this around the world.
The Liberman family part-owns bayside land west of Melbourne at Werribee South, which has in recent years been making way for Wyndham Harbour, a mixed-use but predominantly residential community.
Last year, with the support of Paul Little, City of Greater Geelong launched a twice daily ferry service from Geelong Pier to Docklands, predominantly for tourism purposes.
In April, Spirit of Tasmania’s operator confirmed it would start docking at the regional town after nearly 30 years at Port of Melbourne.
Several major Geelong region commercial projects are underway too – one by Pelligra, affecting the ex-Ford sites in Norlane.
