Fund to sell out of $40 million Phillip Island project

AMP Capital Investors is selling out of a $40 million mixed-use village, earmarked for former farmland near Phillip Island’s town centre of Cowes. The Sydney-based fund manager can expect to make around $9 million from the 26 hectare Ventnor Road development site, which will be sold with a permit for a 90-bed aged care facility, 195 independent living units, a retail conference centre and a 128-lot subdivision.

An AMP spokeswoman said the property is held by a closed-end fund which has a set period of time in which to invest and then sell its properties.

“While we see retirement living as an attractive asset class, the property at Ventnor Road Cowes is not an investment that was intended to be held in the long term and will be disposed of within the timeframe of the fund life.”

Island sources say the closure of the Warley Hospital last year has negatively affected the area’s attractiveness as an aged care location, with AMP’s site one of several to come onto the market recently.

It’s speculated any new owner may exercise a proposed AMP concept plan to redevelop the huge site into more than 300 standard housing lots, omitting an aged care component altogether.

Oliver Hume Real Estate selling agent Peter Vassallo said the AMP site has an approximate 650 metre frontage to Ventnor Road, the main thoroughfare from Cowes to the popular Fairy Penguin parade.

The Warley Hospital shut after a $2.5 million lifeline promised by the now federal Coalition was not matched by the ALP. The nearest hospital is about a 45 minutes drive away, in Wonthaggi.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.