When the City of Ballarat reopened Bridge Mall in March 2025, it had spent $23.3 million of its own money to do so. The council fully funded the redevelopment, and the official opening on 15 March brought traders and residents back to the centre of the CBD. A public commitment of that size changes how investors read the blocks around it.

A year on, traders interviewed by the West Vic Brolga described a busier, more upbeat precinct than the one they had known before the works. The foot traffic helps explain why. Campaign estimates put Bridge Mall and Little Bridge Street at around 10,000 pedestrians and 7,000 vehicles a day, with Coles and Woolworths opposite, Big W and Dan Murphy’s within 200 metres, and Ballarat railway station close by. Sovereign Hill brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city each year, and much of that spending flows into Ballarat Central.

At the centre of that activity is 12-14 Bridge Mall and 9-11 Little Bridge Street, a 778sqm Commercial 1 Zone freehold with something most CBD sites lack: two genuine street frontages of about 15 metres each. One faces the reopened mall, where pedestrians set the pace. The other opens onto Little Bridge Street, directly across from the supermarkets. A pharmacy and a homewares retailer on opposite frontages mean each side of the building trades to a different kind of shopper.

“Bridge Mall is where Ballarat’s retail conversation starts, and this building has a front door on both sides of the block,’ said CBRE’s Matthew Wright. “You get the pedestrian energy of the mall and the convenience of Little Bridge Street in one freehold, which is a rare combination in a regional CBD.’

The tenancies reflect the mix of essential and aspirational spending the precinct is built on. UFS Pharmacy trades from the Bridge Mall front. UFS began in 1880 as a collaboration of nineteen Friendly Societies, opened its first dispensary on 1 January 1881, and remains a member-owned mutual headquartered in Ballarat. It now runs 19 pharmacies and five medical centres across Victoria. Minimax, the premium homewares retailer founded in 1967, occupies the Little Bridge Street side and trades from 15 stores across Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The first floor houses an office tenancy, Arnac Investments, completing a building where the three leases expire between 2029 and 2031.

“UFS has been part of Ballarat for more than 140 years, and its members and head office are in the same town as this building,’ said Mr Wright. “Pair that with a homewares brand like Minimax, which has traded since 1967, and the income has a very local, very established feel.’

Ballarat itself provides the backdrop. The Victorian Government describes it as Victoria’s largest inland city, and population forecasts cited in the campaign material have it growing 29.35 per cent to 164,365 residents by 2046. Health care and social assistance is its largest employer, with 13,642 jobs according to the campaign material, a natural fit for a pharmacy tenant. For a CBD freehold, that is a long runway of customers for the pharmacies, supermarkets and retailers clustered around Bridge Mall.

For investors, the income story is plain. The leases carry fixed annual increases of 4.5 per cent for UFS and 3.5 per cent for Minimax and the office tenant, on net lease structures in which tenants are responsible for the usual outgoings. The weighted average lease expiry is 4.23 years by income, and net income is approximately $207,541 a year plus GST.

“Private investors tend to want three things: a location they understand, tenants they recognise and growth written into the leases,’ said Mr Wright. “This property offers all three, in a CBD the council has backed with $23.3 million.’

Offered for sale by CBRE, this dual-fronted Ballarat CBD freehold at 12-14 Bridge Mall and 9-11 Little Bridge Street gives investors a stake in a precinct that Ballarat has already chosen to rebuild. Click on the below link or contact the exclusive selling agents for more information.

12-14 Bridge Mall & 9-11 Little Bridge Street, Ballarat Central VIC 3350