Back on the market, the former Golden Point Primary School yet again faces an uncertain future and the Courier had a peek inside the building to see what’s on offer.
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Real estate agent Trevor Booth said the English street property, which had been recently renovated to reflect its heritage glory, was a difficult one, given the tough restrictions on the title.
“It’s not just straightforward. It has a crown grant restriction and can only be used for smaller community groups,” Mr Booth said.
“The new occupant would have to fit into that classification. The developer couldn’t subdivide and convert it into residential apartments.”
Although Mr Booth said it would be unlikely anyone would add rooms onto the 990 square metre building, any additions would be subject to some encumberment.
“The building’s unlikely to change from what it is. The new owner that occupies it would have to be a similar type of group.” he said.
The building is too big for smaller community groups on their own and he expects a few submissions from groups and educational institutions on the closing date for expressions of interest.
With a history of nearly 150 years, the school opened its doors in 1875, and functioned that way until 1993, with around 900 students at one stage.
It was in 1993 that the building became one of the 350 schools that were sold off under the Kennett government’s mission to cut back on expenses.
The building then spent 24 years unoccupied as Golden Point, Eureka street and Richards street primary schools joined to form the Canadian Lead Primary School.
Bought by BEST Community Development in 2007, it was owned by them until they entered voluntary liquidation in January 2015.
Under their ownership, GPlace rented the building for several years.
They had been using the building as a base for their three member consortium, Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, the Ballarat University of the Third Age and Mt Clear College, which have all moved onto to different venues.
When occupied by these groups, the building was used for activities such as retiree courses as well as VCAL studies, year nine programs and professional development.
Some of the features of the building include a function room, with an 80-person capacity, and lecture rooms, a commercial kitchen, several classrooms, computer laboratory and onsite, paved parking.
For more information about the building, contact Trevor Booth on 0418 503 388 or visit raywhiteballarat.com.au
Expressions of interest close at 3pm on August 10.
