St Hilliers has acquired a 6.36 hectare greenfield development site at 966 Stud Road, Rowville for $11 million in its latest push into the Melbourne commercial / industrial property market.

This is the fourth property St Hilliers has purchased in Victoria over the past 16 months. The three other acquisitions are older style existing properties with redevelopment potential and were purchased for the St Hilliers Enhanced Property Fund No.1. The properties include a commercial office building at 119 Wells Street, Southbank ($7.4 million), a 2.4 hectare industrial property at 25-37 Huntingdale Road, Burwood ($12.3 million) and an industrial / warehouse facility at 146-48 Sussex Street, Coburg ($10.25 million).

The latest acquisition, which has a 248 metre frontage to Stud Road, is zoned "Business 3" and is well positioned between Ferntree Gully Road to the North and Welliington Road to the South and is 27 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.

According to marketing agent, David Herschell from Colliers International: "This is a rare industrial subdivision. It is sure to attract a great deal of interest from tenants and owner / occupiers given that there is virtually no subdivided land available in Scoresby and Rowville".

St Hilliers Executive Chairman, Tim Casey, said: "The Stud Road property is a prime development site located with direct access to the new Eastlink tollway. With road freight transport accounting for approximately 86% of all freight movements in Victoria, construction of the Eastlink tollway will enhance the strategic importance of Rowville and the South-Eastern suburbs".

He added that the importance of major road and transport infrastructure such as the Eastlink tollway had increased with business needing to find further efficiencies. In the medium to longterm, this would strongly influence Melbourne's manufacturing, wholesale trade and logistics industries to seek new industrial premises, storage and distribution facilities.

"Given our property has good exposure and accessibility to the Eastlink tollway we are looking at a mix of redevelopment options including subdivision, industrial development and smaller built product for the owner/occupier market in the immediate vicinity" he said.

"Rowville and the neighbouring suburbs of Scoresby and Knox are well established with local business people wishing to conduct business closer to home. With only older style offerings available we envisage the demand for new product will be high".

Mr Casey said that St Hilliers was keen to add further greenfield and value-add commercial / industrial developments to its portfolio and would continue to look for opportunities in the Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne markets.