Up Property unveils mid-rise office to replace Geelong’s Belcher Arcade
Up Property has unveiled plans for a five-level office in central Geelong,.
The commercial building, approved in May, will extend the double-storey Belcher Arcade – which Up Property acquired for $2.8 million in 2017.
Until recently, the proposed office was to be known as Belcher & Co .
However a leasing campaign launched this week is branding the complex only as 181 Moorabool Street.
It will contain 2884 square metres of lettable area including three ground floor retail space.
A 121 sqm rooftop terrace faces west capturing views of the Geelong CBD to Corio Bay. The asset will also contain 20 car parks.
Gartland Real Estate’s Michael De Stefano and Adam Farrell are marketing suites ranging in size from 74 sqm.
Up Property expects to start rebuilding 171-181 Moorabool Street by the end of the year.
The space is being targeted to businesses seeking modern accommodation outside of one of the city’s bigger office towers.
“We think we’re meeting the gap in the market between your first-floor-above-strip-shop office and your super prime towers, which we know are coming out of the ground for GMHBA, NDIS and WorkSafe,” Up Property group investment and asset manager Ryan O’Grady told The Geelong Advertiser in this item.
“We’re pitching ours [181 Moorabool Street] at a more affordable level but still at a reasonable rate.
“We’re simply meeting Geelong’s demand for quality office accommodation, which we’re finding even just testing the market over the past six months that we truly believe is there”.
Mr O’Grady said company notices tenant inquiry from within the professional services sector which is going unsatisfied.
Mr De Stefano told The Geelong Advertiser that demand for retail and office space in Geelong is growing, citing the Geelong Flyer ferry launch later this year, and $2 billion federal government pledge for a fast train link to Melbourne, as infrastructure drivers.
“Anything new and affordable within the Geelong area is being snapped up really fast, making properties such as 181 Moorabool Street extremely popular.
Up Property is headquartered in Melbourne’s Armadale but is one of Geelong’s most prominent new commercial property investors.
In the Geelong CBD, it controls the Inn Hotel and 126 Little Malop Street – a low-rise office occupied by Barwon Health and The Geelong Advertiser.
Last November, we reported that the developer paid $7 million, off-market, for a c5000 sqm site at 107-123 High Street, Belmont, about four kilometres east of the Geelong CBD.
Elsewhere in Belmont, Up Property is building a townhouse estate, Lume, on a 6.2 hectare former CSIRO laboratory which it acquired in 2015 for a speculated price of up to $10 million.
In June, we reported Up Property snared efm Logistics to tenant 2850 sqm of a 5257 sqm office being built on the former Phillip Morris cigarette making plant, in Melbourne’s Moorabbin. Collingwood beer brewer Stomping Group has also committed to space at the Moorabbin site, which Up Property acquired for $23.7 million in 2015.
