You could soon own one of Bendigo’s oldest and most iconic buildings.
The City of Greater Bendigo council is looking to sell Lot 1, 7-9 St Andrews Avenue – better known as the former home of Doherty’s Garage – after labelling it as a “potentially surplus asset”.
Council’s CEO Andrew Cooney recently spoke to Robbo on the Wake Up Call about the significance of that declaration.
“We own a lot of different properties around the community, and we look at those pretty regularly to [consider]… are they landholdings that we need to hang onto or are there better uses in the community?” Mr Cooney said.
Councillors concluded the latter about the building at their May meeting, unanimously voting in favour of a community consultation process on the matter.
“So now we start the engagement process to hear from the community,” Mr Cooney told Robbo.
“The council will get another chance to then make a decision on it and if they decide that it is surplus, then we’ll start a disposal process.”
The lot was purchased by the City in 2018, after the owner-operators of Doherty’s Garage opted to sell their automotive repair business, and has been intermittently utilised by council during and after the construction of the so-called GovHub.
While the property is covered by a Heritage Overlay, Mr Cooney reckons the community and potential buyers shouldn’t limit their thinking on the building’s future use: “there’s lots of different things that the site could potentially be used for.”
Feedback is now being accepted on the site’s future until June 21st via the Let’s Talk Greater Bendigo website.
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