An innovative “one stop shop” for tradies is being built on part of the large vacant site near Bunnings Kirrawee, where a Costco super store was nearly established a decade ago. The $50 million project, named Workway, in Waratah Street, will have three major trade retail stores on the top level and 19 lower ground workshops, providing a range of services, and some will have offices.
More affordable units provide mezzanine storage area for those who don’t need the office functionality and don’t want to pay for it. There will be 11 storage units. Private equity firm Corimbia Capital launched the Workway development last week with a sod-turning ceremony.
The entire site was owned for many years by motor dealer Ferdi Dominelli, who leased it in 2015 for a Masters hardware store, being rolled out by Woolworths. When Woolworths dumped Masters, discount retailer Costco was close to leasing the site, but the deal was aborted at the last minute.
German retailer Kaufland also looked at leasing the site before pulling out of Australia. The site was subsequently sold and subdivided into two large lots and two smaller lots. Workway occupies one of the large lots, which is about 6000 square metres. The other large site was secured for a Storage King complex, which is yet to advance.
Pishoy Gobran, founder and director of Corimbia Capital, said Workway was “designed to make doing business easier for trade operators, from local contractors to national retailers.”
“Our vision is to bring together retailers under one roof in a similar way to what HomeCo does with homeware stores, with the added advantage of having individual workshops and work storage as well,” he said.
“Workway will sit alongside major brands in the area like Bunnings, Sydney Tools, Total Workwear, Mazda and Ford.”
The project is being delivered in joint venture with Burtonwood Investment Partners and built by CIP Constructions – a national commercial and industrial builder whose clients include major corporations such as Bunnings, Woolworths, Coles, Target, Linfox, Asahi, Daikin, Nissan, Storage King and Kennards Self Storage. Mr Gobran plans a network of Workway centres. “We picked the shire as pilot location because of how strong it is for trade users,” he said.
Leasing for trade retail is led by CBRE, while Commercial Property Group (CPG) is managing sales of workshops and work stores.
Construction is expected to be completed in August-September next year.