Drive-through ramen part of new Gold Coast service station for sale

The 3290-square-metre service station is fully leased to three tenants: Ampol, dessert store The Cheesecake Shop and international chain Ramen Danbo, with a weighted average lease expiry of 11.7 years.

The Pimpama Ramen Danbo is the group’s seventh restaurant in south-east Queensland, and although the drive-through component is yet to open, it is already among their best performers.

Despite their success and expansion, the Ramen Danbo chain is, like many others in the hospitality industry, struggling to find enough staff to keep its doors open, with some stores opening for reduced hours.

As an essential service, service stations performed strongly through the pandemic and appear to be holding up well in a higher interest rate environment.

Ray White Commercial’s Stephen Kidd said, “the centre provided long-term income security, annual income growth, and substantial long-term capital gain”. 

Kidd and his son Elliott Kidd, also of Ray White Commercial Queensland, had previously handled the leasing campaigns for the development’s retail tenancies.

In May, the pair sold another fully-leased, recently completed service station in Pimpama. A Brisbane investor snapped up the Naves Road service station after auction for $6.3 million.

“The market for leased investments in south-east Queensland is still very strong,” said Kidd, adding investors were attracted to the exposed retail position, population growth in the area and the strong tenant profiles.

Located on the northern side of the Gold Coast, Pimpama has made headlines as one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Pimpama’s growth rate was 13 per cent last financial year, the highest growth rate outside of the capital cities.

Completed in mid-2021, the Naves Road property was leased to Pearl Energy and Evive Chicken Carvery, returning a base rent of $375,000.

Kidd would not comment on the price guide, but it’s understood the Jacobs Well Road site currently for sale is expected to fetch more, given its three tenants contribute $465,000 in net income per annum, set to increase to $493,000 in December.

Asked about the state of the commercial property market on the Gold Coast, Kidd said, “there’s still plenty of cash out there”.

“The fact that the residential market has tanked and interest rates are rising isn’t impacting a lot yet on our prices. Borrowings are only a part of the equation. I think if interest rates continue to rise, that will change.”

In nearby Upper Coomera, the team at Savills Brisbane are selling a near-new service station leased to United Petroleum for circa $5.5 million.