A huge patch of prime residential real estate in North Ballarat could soon be on the market after the WIN Television network made its first steps to vacate its Walker Street address.
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In November the network’s planning consultants Beveridge Williams lodged a planning permit application with the City of Ballarat to move the telecommunications tower from the centre of the property to the south east corner, paving the way for the future sale of the 2.1-hectare block.
If given the green light a 40-metre tower will be built near the Howitt Street corner of the site. The tower also acts as the Vodafone mobile tower for the Ballarat region.
The application is currently in the advertising phase, with a decision not expected to be made until after July 17.
The application stated “the regional television landscape is changing within Australia and WIN TV is currently reviewing its locational operations options”.
“WIN TV will remain a presence within Ballarat, however one option may be to re-locate the operations to another site within Ballarat,” the application read. “WIN TV has not secured a new location in Ballarat as yet and will remain in the current premises until an alternate suitable location is found.”
While WIN is yet to list the property on the market, it is anticipated it would be highly sought after by developers given that the block is zoned as general residential.
Houses along Walker Street have sold for between $350,000 and $450,000 in the past year.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria Ballarat branch president Christine Segaert said while it would be difficult to put a precise figure on the value of the block, she would anticipate plenty of interest should it find its way to the market.
“It’s a really popular location so I would think it would be a fairly sought after piece of real estate,” Ms Segaert said. “Depending on how to develop it, you could go high density or make it something a bit more exclusive and have larger blocks.
“If it were to be sold I’d expect fierce interest in trying to purchase the land for development.”
The steps to facilitate a future move come after the company stopped broadcasting Victorian bulletins out of Ballarat in February 2016, with newsreader Bruce Roberts now reading Victorian news out of Wollongong.
WIN TV was contacted for comment.
