Sorrento Country Road store to test Mornington Peninsula investor appetite
The strength of the Mornington Peninsula retail property market will be tested early in the new year with the Country Road store on Ocean Beach Road in the heart of Sorrento being offered for sale by former Victorian Cancer Council president Peter Griffin.
Mr Griffin purchased the 1905-built Post and Telegraph building for $2.53 million just over four years ago and spent $1 million converting it into a retail outlet in 2015 for Country Road, owned by South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings.
Expectations are in excess $5 million for the 750-square-metre property at 10-16 Ocean Beach Road, leased by Country Road until 2022. It goes to public auction on March 10.
It was the second of five early post office buildings build by the Victorian government for the newly formed Commonwealth Postmaster-General’s office. The red-brick building included postmasters quarters at the rear.
Its listing follows a number of prominent retail property deals struck last year on Sorrento’s main shopping street. These include the Peninsula Cinemas at 26-36 Ocean Beach Road, sold by Village Roadshow founders, the Kirby Family, for $5 million on a 4.6 per cent yield, and the premises of surfing shop Ozmosis at 59 Ocean Beach Road, which sold for $4.7 million on a 5.1 per cent yield and at a record land rate for Sorrento of more than $10,000 per square metre.
Also selling in recent times were the premises of Mitre 10 at 80-98 Ocean Beach Road which sold for a record $11.47 million at auction in 2016 on a yield of 0.4 per cent.
The Sorrento Country Road store is being marketed by Rorey James and Bianca Butterworth of CBRE.
While many apparel retailers are struggling against the rising tide of online shopping and the arrival of Amazon in Australia last year, Mr James said the Sorrento Country Road store was performing exceptionally well with the retailer recently taking on more storage space to meet demand.
“Drawing from a large catchment of more than 150,000 residents from Mount Martha to Portsea, Sorrento has seen increased interest from local and international investors with a number of significant sales over the past two years,” Mr James said.
“We expect this momentum to continue, with this property attracting strong interest due to its favourable lease structure and longer term development potential, together with the prime position along Sorrento’s retail strip.”
