Two in ‘talks’ to buy offices

ERIN PEARSON
TWO prospective buyers are in talks to buy Surf Coast Shire’s Torquay offices site, according to its selling agent.
Colliers International commercial property specialist Andrew Lewis told the Independent he expected the sale to return around $4.5 million.
Mr Lewis said discussions on the sale were “going well”.
Two parties were still in the running to buy the 2.9-hectare site after applications to buy closed last week.
“We’ve had a couple of expressions of interest and two are looking better than the others,” Mr Lewis said.
“We’re now in discussions with those two parties and finalising the offers to the point where we can put them to council.”
Mr Lewis hoped to finish with a better deal for the shire.
“We certainly haven’t concluded a deal. There is room for improvement,” he said.
“Over the next week or two I’ll put the final offers to council. We’re out of the block and running.”
Mr Lewis said residents would be able to have their say on the offers after they had gone to council.
The Independent reported in January that State Government’s refusal to buy the site for a Torquay College expansion had left a hole in council’s plan to build a $10 million office building on Surf Coast Highway.
Council had budgeted to sell the land to the education department under the former Brumby Government. Council stuck with the plan when the coalition announced before the November election that it would build a new secondary school rather than expand the existing college.
The education department later refused to proceed with a memorandum of understanding to purchase the office site.