Unique site goes under the hammer

For thirty years the Ballarat Occasional Childcare Centre saw generations of our kids grow up, now its former site is offering a lot of potential.

COUNTLESS toddlers and preschoolers have passed through its doors on the corner of Armstrong Street North and Market Street, but with the relocation of the City of Ballarat’s occasional childcare service to Girrabanya, the purpose build facility is on the market.

Ray White Ballarat has taken on the task of selling the site after the City of Ballarat decided it no longer need the building.

Trevor Booth, Director at Ray White Ballarat, is the lead on the sale, which will take place at the firm’s In Room Auction event on Monday night.

“It’s a very unique site and the council has deemed it superfluous to their needs,” he said. “The most transparent way to sell it is to put it our there to the public.

“Our recommendation was to go auction and go in-room.”

Enquires on the former childcare centre have been strong with buyers looking to use it in a number of different ways.

Mr Booth said the site holds a lot of potential including as a retail development, offices or medical suites. There’s also the option of returning the site to caring for kids.

“It is purpose-built for childcare,” Mr Booth said. “It does have little toilets and little kids’ faculties. It also has some adult facilities too, but you would need to set it up if you weren’t planning on continuing with childcare.”

The 965 square meter site, with 267 of which are the building itself, includes onsite car parking and is zoned commercial 1, siting directly across from the future GovHub centre.

“One of the real advantages is the land for carparking,” Mr Booth said.

“That’s one of the biggest issues around the CBD, finding space on-site for staff car parks as so on.

“It lends itself very nicely to someone who wants to be in that busy precinct and it’s going to get very busy, we’ve got 1000 people set to be working there very soon.”

The former Occasional Childcare Centre will go under the hammer along with four other properties at Ray White Ballarat’s In Room Auction set for Oscars Hotel and Cafe Bar on Doveton Street South from 7am on Monday, 24 June.