MHD PROPERTY FOCUS
THE STATE OF SOUTHEAST MELBOURNE Gordon Code and James Stott, Directors at Colliers heading up Melbourne’s southeast industrial team, share their recent experiences in and analyses of the southeast sector – and what the near future looks like.
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Colliers Directors Gordon Code and James Stott head up a team of six people dedicated to Melbourne’s southeast industrial property market. “James and I focus on major site sales, institutional leasing, and investment sales,” Gordon says. “And we also have a team working with middle markets, encompassing smaller properties and the strata space.” It’s a young and dynamic team, with Gordon telling MHD that the average age of the team is mid-twenties. But while relatively young themselves, Gordon and James are highly knowledgeable and effective experts in the industrial property sector. Indeed, one particularly impressive transaction the pair recently handled was
The southeast has the greatest amount of zoned land east of Melbourne city.
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a 10 year lease to the iconic Toys”R”US of a purpose-built 19,650sqm facility in Clayton South, part of ESR’s Clayton Business Hub. The Toys”R”US facility will consolidate the retailer’s operations under one roof, and serve a hybrid function catering to modern e-commerce distribution needs as well as housing a showroom where customers can engage with Toys”R”US brands. Although this property falls within the eastern rather than southeast industrial property boundary – Gordon says there is close collaboration between the eastern and southeast teams – James notes it was an interesting transaction not simply because of its scale, but because it reflects the unique changes brought on by rising e-commerce, and
how one major retailer is responding. “This is a new foray for them back into a customer facing experience that is simultaneously heavily focused on e-commerce,” Gordon says. “The fulfilment centre that they’ve committed to also includes a showroom, a customer experience centre. “Instead of opting for Dandenong in the southeast, they instead have chosen to go for Clayton in the east. While shoppers clearly enjoy the ease of e-commerce and online fulfilment of their orders, there is still something attractive about the physical experience of shopping – taking the kids on a trip to Toys”R”US on the weekend, for instance. With this facility they retain the e-commerce focus and capability but add on to that a more focused and engaging
