Manufacturing and retail have been doing it tough but Wollongong is attracting commercial interest from outside as the number of people living in the city is set to explode driving more restaurant and bar activity. And there are exciting projects being proposed such as SkiGong.
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They were some of the observations made by Colliers International as it wrapped up 2015 and looked into the crystal ball for 2016.
Associate director Marcello Ramirez said retail had been tough but one of the big movers was food. There have been as many as 50 new cafes open in recent years and Colliers is receiving more interest.
Mr Ramirez said Corrimal Street was set to become the entertainment district as considerable residential activity occurred in that part of town. The retail and apparel market will be based around the main shopping centre where things will also improve as more people live in the city.
Interest is now growing in the industrial property market. In early December Mr Ramirez had two Sydney companies looking for major sites. One was after a site of about 30,000sqm to set up Australasian headquarters. The other was a company involved in food manufacturing. One of the projects could initially employ as many as 300 people and then about 150 over two decades.
In the office market Mr Ramirez said there was a lack of A Grade office space. But there were some big deals happening, such as the university successfully bringing NEC to the innovation campus. In the past it was mostly large financial institutions looking for significant floor space but now IT and health are the sectors demanding more. The new Wollongong Private Hospital is one example of that.
“We are 85 per cent leased on that site. Obviously the big tenant is Ramsay. We are currently working through with a number of doctors and we have leased out commercial space to those doctors.”
Mr Ramirez said it showed if you have a good (A Grade) product in Wollongong you can fill the space and command a good rent. It is also helping the city retain specialist medical services.
“With A Grade stock there is a new market coming on. It will probably take two to three years to get a new commercial building out of the ground.”
Colliers International is also working with a party wanting to set up a SkiGong in the city. Mr Ramirez said that proposal was for a $300 million development with the potential to could create visitation and jobs in the city. “SkiGong is based on the the Dubai indoor ski centre with 20,000sqm of conferencing and hotel,” he said.
More of Simon Kersten’s thoughts at http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3626249/gong-attracts-smart-industry-as-3000-more-people-live-in-cbd/?cs=300 .
