Mount Gambier’s The Mills precinct is currently seeking tenants to lease out the smorgasbord of spaces on offer.

The Mills is located at the state heritage listed Oatmill Precinct, which has recently undergone major redevelopments designed by Adelaide architects Das Studio.

Herbert Commercial Mount Gambier’s Matt Kain, who is responsible for seeking the tenants and securing leases, said stage one of the development was complete.

“The next stages are a little bit dependent upon securing one or multiple tenants that will allow the owners to then start going into the next level of investment,” Mr Kain said.

“It is broad and open, but ideally there is a huge opportunity to have the precinct operating not just as a night offering, but to have the ability for there to be high-calibre, high-standard office facilities.

“We have probably got 3000 square metres we are looking to fill and it is probably broken down in lots of 1000, 1000, 800 and then a couple of little ones around that.

“There may be ways to split that down into smaller again, there are some challenges with heritage with separating levels of top versus bottom and we will work through all of that based on the right tenant,” Mr Kain said.

In The Stores East building, where Purplez was located, Mr Kain said he could see potential for a not-for-profit, community-based or business incubator-style collaboration of businesses.

“The new owners understand if they invest and they bring it up to a very high standard, with that it is going to be high-standard tenancies and a high quality and the rental levels obviously are representative of that, but so too will the volume of usage by the public and the value to those tenancies and it is all the more the more,” he said.

“The scale in which this could be developed is, at the moment, very broad.”

Mr Kain said the spaces in the back section of The Mills were yet to be leased out, however there was a tenant in the downstairs area that was facing south which also included the 160sqm of decking area.

“It is a whiskey and wine offering, so they are quite experienced in the hospitality game,” he said.

“We are working through the last of the construction elements for their tenancy and they are going to be very quickly moving into their installation phase and we would like to think they are operating by the first half of this year.”

Mr Kain believed The Mills precinct would be good for Mount Gambier because the type of end product the current owners are able to achieve will be of a very high standard.

“So I suppose it will be of a scale and size for its location that is interconnecting with the standard the Mount Gambier city has already achieved with the likes of the Main Corner and the Town Hall, the library and rail lands,” he said.

“All of these things are really, in relative terms, quite closely connected spaces and at the moment people do not really know there is this property here, even though it is seeing lots of traffic with the location of Coles only literally a stone’s throw away.

“And what it means for this end of the shopping precinct or the CBD, it is just the perfect location and the scale that it can achieve, there are so many things that would complement each other.”

Mr Kain said the number of tenants being sought was very flexible, with potential tenants spoilt for choice with the various available buildings.

“I suppose if we secured one of the ideally suited tenancies that warrant progressing of works, the time-frame in which this space could be turned around is quite quick in construction terms in that a lot of the planning and approvals and even the nominated works providers,” he said.

“Kennett’s have been actively involved in the works to date, so all of that is a time saver to allow switching the go button and doing the works and it could be broken down in a couple of stages, potentially.

“There is plenty of site maps and square metres information we are able to provide interested parties, so absolutely anyone wishing to make enquiries and talk to us more about their potential business ideas.

“It is not restricted to a restaurant, it is not restricted to offices, we cannot set the rules or control what tenant’s ideas are out there they may have that might suit, bring it forward, we can look at it.

“It is having tenants that can see the potential and for their business to fit and how we might help them to develop their idea is the challenge.”