Oddie isn’t exactly flush with cash and couldn’t come up with the +GST let alone the $1.65 million asking price for what is being advertised as “Shepparton’s Most Prominent Corner Location”.
Oddie could rightly argue the court diagonally opposite the old Commonwealth Bank building in Wyndham St is equally as prominent, and that the Shepp Hotel opposite is certainly the most talked about.
Apparently the site is only on the market for the second time. Oddie reckons a savvy buyer with deep enough pockets to need a bank vault will snap it up.
Cream brick or modern shtick
Let’s face it, the bank building is about as inspiring as a spreadsheet.
It isn’t the prettiest façade, especially for such a prominent site — so what’s in store?
According to the agent, Stockdale & Leggo, design concepts have been drawn up and are available for review “if smaller tenancies were in the purchaser's vision”.
The property also has a current planning permit to allow for up to five on-site car parks.
Barking about parking
Oddie hears the howling quite regularly about inconsistencies in parking policy in the city.
Such as why one development is forced to provide more-than-adequate on-site parking while another a stone's throw away, which happens to be a busy business attracting lots of customers, doesn’t have any?
The old Commonwealth Bank building has 1025 sqm of floor space, which under the current ‘one person per four square metres' rule means it could have 250 people. Oddie likes to play fair, so let’s just say there are 25 staff and 50 customers, theoretically of course.
The building currently has a planning permit in place to allow for up to five on-site car parks, which is plenty if they can fit mini-buses.
Oddie thinks the building was probably built in a much gentler time when folks walked to work, but Shepparton is now spreading north and south and we are increasingly reliant on cars. Perhaps that is why council is now arguing for more public transport.