Whiz Kidz secures lease for new St Albans childcare centre

It’s a case of second time lucky for a childcare development in St Albans after a new tenant, Whiz Kidz, was secured with close to a 20% rental uplift in two years.

CBRE’s Australian Healthcare and Social Infrastructure team of Sandro Peluso, Marcello Caspani-Muto and Jimmy Tat managed the leasing of the property at 64 Blendon Avenue.

The CBRE team first leased the site in 2022, prior to securing a planning permit, for $367,000 per year.

After the developer did not commence construction within the specified date, the site was sold to experienced commercial and residential developer Ansel Commercial in November 2024.

The property now has planning and building permits in place for a 113-place centre. Construction is expected to commence by February 2025 and be delivered in mid-2026.

Founder of Ansel Commercial Sandy Randive said, “As part of our acquisition of the site we consulted CBRE on the market rental required to make this project feasible in light of the evolving construction cost environment since its previous leasing campaign. We are excited to deliver the newest and highest quality offering for early learning within the St Albans catchment and are glad to be partnering with one of the highest quality providers within Victoria to do so.”

Mr Caspani-Muto noted the incoming tenant, Whiz Kidz, has a highly successful centre within the catchment and outbid two other providers to secure the new service which will allow them to cater to their existing waitlist.

“Too many operators and developers get caught up on the immediate demand ratio within a catchment. However, in many cases experienced operators look beyond this with a focus on the quality, age and size of existing providers within the catchment. Some of the most successful providers we know are located within catchments that a desktop assessment may not necessarily reflect perfectly on. St Albans is a prime example where many providers thought a ratio below 2:1 would cause challenges, yet Whiz Kidz have a sizeable service within five minutes of the property that is already at capacity and will likely achieve the same outcome here,” he said.

Sandro Peluso added, “Despite all the broader dialog around construction challenges in recent years, we are still finding some of the country’s most successful private providers are coming to the table on increased rentals to make these projects feasible. There is no question projects in prime metropolitan locations are struggling to get off the ground but city fringe and outer metropolitan locations such as this are actually proving to be more desirable for providers. Aside from more palatable rentals there is also greater access to staff for centres in these areas.”

Whiz Kidz is a Sydney-based childcare centre operator with 10 centres across NSW and Victora.