THE future of Lakes Edge, the property to the east of Hamilton, has been handed to a real estate agent to manage its marketing campaign and sales.

On Wednesday evening, at the monthly Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) meeting, a decision was taken following an Expression of Interest (EOI) process that began in March 2023.

Shire Infrastructure director, Marg Scanlon, read out the recommendation that was reached after five submissions were received and considered the applicants’ marketing strategies, successful sales history, lead generation techniques, customer engagement practices, sales team skills, and performance metrics.

“The report before you is as a result of a recent procurement process that’s been undertaken seeking the services of property sales agents, for the Lakes Edge Hamilton property, which is the 22 hectares located on Handbury Boulevard in Hamilton,” she said.

“Based on this evaluation process, as a result of the procurement process that’s been completed, it’s recommended before you that Council endorses the engagement of Biggin and Scott to act on behalf of Council as the property sales agent to the value of $20,659 which would be for the marketing campaign and two per cent of the land sales.”

Councillor, Katrina Rainsford, asked whether there would be any possibility for the land being used for camping purposes.

“Councillors are aware that I’ve been very interested in the potential of a caravan camping facility, or even short-term cabin accommodation that could be used for worker accommodation that could make the footprint for a caravan camping ground at Lakes Edge,” she said.

“We own the land and it’s a wonderful location with the adventure playground, the dog park, a walking track around the lake, a skate park, a museum close by.

“We’ve got a very good other cabin and caravan cabin park with a smaller footprint now for caravans and we are trying to attract major events.

“Is it potentially possible with this granting of a real estate agent to manage a portion that will be nominated of Lakes Edge real estate - that the potential of a caravan park could be considered?”

Ms Scanlon agreed that “this is an incredible site and an enormous opportunity” but said the engagement of the real estate agent included informing Council what the market could offer.

“The process moving forward once we have the sales property agent on board is to run an expression of interest process to developers,” she said.

“From that response, we then can ascertain what the market is indicating for that site and those initial submissions will then come back to Council for further consideration.

“A caravan park may very well be one of those submissions.”

Cr Helen Henry asked whether the decision would not lock Council into working with just one developer or even selling all of the land, which Ms Scanlon confirmed was correct.

Cr Henry lent her support for the recommendation and hoped the community would understand the decision was not about selling off community assets for money, but a range of positive social and commercial outcomes.

Biggin and Scott’s proposed marketing strategy for the Lakes Edge project referenced their experience with similar development sites across regional Victoria.

They have also handled property sales for government and corporate entities, demonstrating adherence to privacy and probity requirements, and their proposal suggested a publicly advertised EOI sales campaign, flexible settlement terms, and deposit payments to attract potential buyers and increase the final sale price.

The sales process for the Lakes Edge project will involve three stages, with an estimated total duration of eight weeks.

These stages include preparing marketing collateral, launching the EOI campaign, assembling second-round bids, negotiating with shortlisted parties, executing sales documents, and finalising reports.

Regular reports will be provided to the Council to monitor market interest and initial proposals.

Cr Bruach Colliton moved the motion and said it was a “fantastic” step forward.

“What we need to do is have these blocks on the market – we’ve needed to do that for a long time,” he said.

“We know there’s a serious shortage of housing in Southern Grampians. We know there are more and more people moving here.

“Council itself has issues with employing people because of the lack of accommodation (and so do) other large employers in the Shire - WDHS is another critical employer who needs more accommodation.

“We see there’s 400,000 immigrants due to hit Australia in the next year, it’s only going to increase from here.

“It is very exciting what can happen here - housing is one part of it, but I’m really keen to see what else might come about in terms of other businesses, other industries that need to move here and then for us to start to get some revenue to really then build on that lake and access to that beautiful place to live.

“Lakes Edge was a success - the original part - and to see this all built out in the next few years will be so, so, so good for Hamilton and Southern Grampians.”

Cr Colliton said he was also keen to see what locally-born development might be proposed and Cr Albert Calvano seconded the motion, adding the development would hopefully ease traffic pressure off Rippon Road.

The vote was passed unanimously.