It features over 2,800 square metres of beam-free floor space
A freehold warehouse in Byron Bay is now on the market, expecting a $13 million to $14 million price tag as the town’s industrial estate begins to catch attention as a ‘serious investor hub’.
Locals Rick and Gayle Hultgren are selling their 3,862-square-metre property at 11 Centennial Circuit with plans to retire. Initially built in 2000 to support the couple’s wholesale diving business, the warehouse has been leased to various local businesses since the Hultgrens sold their company in 2012.
While Byron Bay has been better known in recent years for its multimillion-dollar residential and hotel market, the Bay Arts and Industrial Estate a few kilometres outside the town centre has steadily become a trendy commercial and industrial precinct.
“It’s become quite expensive in the last 10 years,” said Rick Hultgren, who has lived there since the 70s. “It used to be a small little [estate] with surfboard manufacturers and artist enclaves.”
While small surf brands and creatives still dot the precinct, multimillion-dollar empires have invested in the area, making it a second town centre near Belongil Beach, Commercial Real Estate reported.
Read more: Commercial opportunity knocks for brokers
Listing agent Karin Heller, of Smile Estate, said Byron Bay’s industrial market remained one of the only ‘buoyant’ markets. “It’s definitely come off from a year ago, but there are still lots of buyers looking for commercial property,” she said.
Just last year, a 4,800-square-metre block of land in Banksia Drive fetched $9.6 million, while a former garden centre along Grevillea Street sold for over $11 million.
Heller noted that it was rare for standalone, freehold blocks to come up for sale. The warehouse’s internal space – with 2,820 square metres of clear space and two floors of offices – was one of the property’s main selling points.
“It’s the only one I know of in the area that is free of internal beams,” Rick Hultgren said, explaining that he had envisioned a dynamic space without beams in the way when the warehouse was first built. The space can be used as storage or even a space for filming, as it was considered by television producers a few years ago.
Read next: Building a better future
“We’ve had investors just looking to sit on it and land bank it for a while,” Heller added. “We’ve also had people looking who want to utilise it themselves.
“It’s no longer a sleepy place to have a holiday; it’s a serious investor hub. Some people are looking to spend big money.”
Clothing brand Thrills currently rents most of the building. Its lease ends in 2024.
