$1.4M LABRADOR DEAL CHILD’S PLAY

A SHUTTERED child care centre in Labrador will be reopened under new ownership following a $1.05 million deal. The 168a Whiting St property was sold by Lorna Roberts, who acquired the 2645sq m site for $1.395 million in 2004.

The new owners are Citicare Pty Ltd, associated with Cairns child care centre owners Les and Tania Williams, and Penben Investments Pty Ltd, linked to Brisbane investors Benjamin Semple and Penny Williams.

Corwells’ Trevor Richards, who marketed the site with colleague Sam Griffiths, said the new owners were refurbishing the property to reopen in the next few weeks. He said the sale price reflected the run-down state of the 662sq m building.

It served as a 93-place child care centre run by Bright Horizons Australia Childcare until it vacated several months ago.

“The property received a lot of interest from owner-occupiers and developers during the campaign,” he said. “We had a couple of offers from child care operators. We also had interest from prospective tenants but the owner was more interested in selling the property. The previous tenant had closed up and it sat vacant for a few months before they decided to run the campaign.”

Mr Richards said they received higher offers than the final sale price but they came with conditions the owner did not want to accept.

He said the sale was evidence of strong demand for child care assets.

Mr Richards said a lease was put in place for the new owners prior to settlement so they could gain early access to the property for the fit-out.