The building that until Tuesday, November 20 was the home of Woolworths in Merimbula has been sold to Jindabyne developer Bruce Marshall.
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Mr Marshall said he hoped to get a national retailer into the 2400sqm space and has talked about a connection with his existing properties which include Target, Waves restaurant and the shops along Main Street that are adjacent to the old Woolworths building.
“We have got to do a job on it. It’s early days yet. We’ve got to bring this building into the modern world with more windows and some external work,” Mr Marshall said.
READ MORE: Woolworths welcomes shoppers to new store
The building is leased to Woolworths until August 2019 which “will give me time to work on it”, he said adding that he had a designer organised.
“I have a few ideas. I’m not going to radically change it but I will be looking for appropriate tenancies and will engage Melbourne and Sydney agents to seek interest from national retailers.”
Asked whether it might be suitable for a small format Bunnings while the company waited for changes to the zoning at Tura Beach where parent company Wesfarmers owned land, Mr Marshall said it was unsuitable for a hardware store as there wasn’t enough yard space.
He admitted that he had thought about a small format Coles but said the area would be “well and truly served for supermarkets” with the Merimbula and Tura Beach Woolworths stores, and an Aldi. However Woolworths and Aldi will generate traffic in the area which makes the commercial space more enticing to a national retailer.
Mr Marshall said he bought the property within a week of being introduced to it. While work is being carried out on the property and a tenant found, the underground car park which has 80 spaces, will be closed.
The site area is 3846sqm with a building of 2355sqm and 94 car parking spaces. Developed in 1989 as a Cannons supermarket, it was last on the market in 2014.
The sale of the Woolworths building follows the recent sale of Merimbula Square, for what was believed to be a record amount for the town.
It is believed that the purchaser paid around $6.5million.
On the other side of Market Street, the Plaza, which was for sale for the first time in 64 years, has now sold.
Speaking earlier this year real estate agency Burgess Rawson said the site was expected to sell for close to $6million.
