Council is seeking submissions on the potential sale of four surplus properties.

The land holdings are not in the Council’s long-term plans and are likely to attract interest given they all host commercial activities.

Deputy Mayor Trent Sullivan said the proceeds of sale would help to deliver new and upgraded assets across Greater Geelong.

To help balance upcoming budgets reduce our borrowing levels and invest in priority projects we propose to sell properties that are surplus to our long-term plans. Conditions of purchase would be imposed on two of the properties to ensure community access can continue into the future.

In conjunction with the Proposed 2022-23 Budget Council is undertaking a community engagement process to gain feedback on the proposed sales.

The four properties proposed to be sold are:

21 Gheringhap St Geelong

• The land contains Civic Car Park with 503 commercial car parks and four small retail stores
• 4062.7 square metres
• Built in the mid-1970s with land acquisition and development costs of $2 602 977

Council intends to include a condition of purchase that ensures commercial car parking - and the existing number of car spaces - is retained for a minimum of 10 years.

30-54 Brougham St Geelong

• The land contains Busport Car Park with 196 commercial car parks and office space
• 3218 square metres
• The office space is predominately occupied by City employees; however it will not be required once the Wurriki Nyal building is completed later this year.

The building structure is capable of supporting another two levels of car parking.

17 Reynolds Road Belmont

• The land contains a ten Pin bowling centre with a commercial lease; a maternal health centre run by the City and car parking.
• 1.561 hectares

Council intends to include a condition of purchase that guarantees a 20-year lease for the Maternal Health Centre so the service would not be impacted.

200 Princes Highway Corio

• The land contains a KFC store and associated car parks
• It is commercially leased until 2029 with a further 2 by 5-year options to extend the lease. 

Council intends to subdivide approximately 1 570m2 from the Stead Park reserve and rezone it to a Commercial 2 Zone (C2Z) to conform with the developed use. If the land is rezoned Council proposes to sell the C2Z land enabling the commercial use to continue.

Council has raised $32 million in recent years by selling other surplus sites such as the Old Geelong Gaol and the Old Geelong Post Office.

Further information on the proposed asset sales can be viewed here

Finance Portfolio Chair Councillor Anthony Aitken said public submissions were encouraged and would be received until Tuesday 24 May.

To repair our council budget in Geelong we have to sell an historic level of assets and we have identified some properties that don’t need to be under community ownership. The program will help us tackle our debt levels and reduce the need to borrow even more money in coming years without impacting on residents’ rates. We have to live within our means in Geelong.

I encourage the community to give us feedback on the identified properties. If there is strong negative feedback we will review the assets identified and any other aspects of the Proposed Budget they are interested in.