Mornington Village Shopping Centre on the market again
A popular seaside shopping hub is up for grabs and whoever takes the plunge can expect a rental return second only to blue-ribbon Brighton.
South East
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Mornington Village Shopping Centre is back on the market less than three years after selling for $39 million.
Stonebridge Property Group is calling for expressions of interest in the “double supermarket anchored neighbourhood centre in the trophy Mornington Peninsula region”.
The Main Street centre is home to a Woolworth, Aldi, BWS, The Reject Shop, Nandos, a medical centre and pharmacy.
It also has access to more than 455 car spaces and 55 under cover car spaces.
The 1.3ha Main Street centre has three street frontages and when fully leased has an annual net income of $2 million.
Stonebridge partner Jason Dowers said there had already been a lot of interest in the property which was located on one of the most successful shopping strips in Melbourne.
“Main Street, Mornington is second only to Church Street, Brighton in terms of commercial rents,” Mr Dowers said.
His colleague Kevin Tong said the increasing trend of locals working from home and the appeal of the location had led to a “substantial spike in foot traffic and retail spend in the area”.
Mr Tong said increasing demand for low and medium density housing in Mornington made the corner site “prime for future development”.
The sale comes on the heels of significant changes pending for nearby Mornington Central after Target announced it was moving out of the hub.
Vicinity has applied to Mornington Peninsula Shire to redevelop the space to house a supermarket and specialty retailers.
“The proposal is currently being considered by the Mornington Peninsula Shire and the commencement of the project will be subject to approval by Vicinity’s Board,” a Vicinity spokeswoman said.
The plan has angered Mornington shoppers who don’t want the town’s only department chain to be replaced with another supermarket.
More than 100 people have already voiced their corners about the planning application.
Mornington Village was last sold in June 2018 by Melbourne accounting firm Lowe Lippman to a syndicate of investors for $39 million.
The sale followed a failed bid to expand and revamp the centre.
In April 2018 Mornington Peninsula Shire Council knocked back an application for a major redevelopment of the prime site.
The proposal involved a land swap with the council in order to increase the retail floor area by 2740sq m.
The centre owners wanted to build over current outdoor carparking and create a new basement car park.
The owners also offered to seal a council-owned unsealed car park as a sweetener.
But council officers nipped the plan in the bud, saying the proposed deal was 73 spaces short for carparking requirements.
At the time Graeme Dickson said the complex was “deteriorating” and urgently needed a revamp so it could compete with a new supermarket slated for the nearby former Masters site.
