Standalone Zone Bowling in Frankston for sale with repositioning pub potential

Now, the Zone Bowling property at 228 Cranbourne Road has hit the market, offering investors secure rental income today and the potential for a very different future down the track.

The 5142-square-metre land parcel could eventually accommodate uses ranging from large-format retail and medical services to childcare – or even a large-format pub – according to selling agents at JLL, who are not disclosing a price guide.

But the bowling shoes aren’t being packed away just yet.

The centre is leased to TEEG, one of the Asia-Pacific region’s major family entertainment operators, until June 2029, with a further five-year option to June 2034.

The lease generates an estimated net income of $337,198 a year, with fixed annual rent increases of 3.5 per cent.

Despite that income, JLL senior executive Romanor Falconer says the passing rent of about $139 per square metre remains “well below the site’s underlying potential”.

Falconer says the property is also unusual among modern bowling centres because it stands on its own, rather than forming part of a larger shopping centre.

“A lot of the bowling centres now, particularly TEEG-operated and their competition, are located in shopping centres,” he says. “So this is quite a unique site profile for a bowling centre.”

Falconer points to the former Zone Bowling Moorabbin as another example of the increasingly rare standalone format.

That property, on a similarly sized 5447-square-metre site, sold for $10.2 million last July to entertainment group General Public, but it was gutted by a fire in October 2025.

The Frankston property features a 2500-square-metre building, 70 on-site car spaces and 37 metres of frontage to Cranbourne Road, where more than 182,000 vehicles pass each week, according to JLL. 

There’s plenty of real estate behind those bowling shoes. The entertainment centre packs in 28 ten-pin bowling lanes, more than 35 arcade games, a licensed bar and cafe and party facilitiesg.

What could Zone Bowling Frankston become?

While its immediate future remains firmly in bowling, Falconer says the size of the existing building and extensive on-site parking could eventually open it up to a broad range of alternative uses.

“Just given the profile of the size, the existing building being 2500 square metres, and also the amount of car parking on title there, there’s a plethora of different uses,” he says. “It could range from large-format retail uses [to] medical, allied health and childcare.”

The potential large-format retail play comes as the sector enjoys a historically tight vacancy rate, sitting at just 2.8 per cent nationally, with rents rising 21 per cent since 2020, according to recent research.

“It could also be hospitality uses moving forward, sort of a large format type pub or alternate uses,” Falconer says. “I think it comes down to having those really prime existing improvements and the car parking that lots of these tenants need.”

Frankston attracts investment

The potential comes as Frankston City Council moves to attract further investment, launching a Priority Development Program this year that aims to deliver decisions on eligible major housing, commercial and mixed-use developments within 16 weeks.

The property’s position could particularly lend itself to health-related uses, with St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital about 150 metres away and Peninsula Private Hospital also nearby.

The Woolworths-anchored Karingal Hub is less than 800 metres away, while McDonald’s and KFC occupy neighbouring sites.

JLL senior executive Dominic McGrath says the property’s combination of exposure, scale and parking “creates optionality that simply doesn’t exist in most strips”.

Just along Cranbourne Road is Ballam Park, a sprawling 30-hectare recreation reserve home to playgrounds, sporting fields and the historic Ballam Park Homestead, which dates to the 1850s.

The broader Frankston landscape stretches to the shores of Port Phillip Bay, with the city’s beach, pier and foreshore helping mark the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula.

About 40 kilometres south-east of Melbourne’s CBD, Frankston remains relatively affordable by metropolitan standards, with the median price for a three-bedroom house sitting at $835,000, according to the latest Domain data.

Frankston is also in the midst of developing a nine-kilometre Regional Arts Trail connecting its foreshore with McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, with installations continuing through the year and completion expected in 2027.

Frankston City Council’s 2026-27 budget includes an $83.6 million capital works program spanning major projects, roads, recreation facilities, shared paths and public spaces.

From AMF to Zone Bowling

The property’s history as a bowling centre predates the Zone Bowling name.

The venue previously operated as an AMF bowling centre before the network was acquired in 2017 by TEEG, a joint venture between LAI Group and Quadrant Private Equity, and subsequently rebranded as Zone Bowling.

TEEG now operates more than 350 venues across seven Asia-Pacific countries under brands including Timezone, Zone Bowling and Kingpin.

Falconer says the site has a long-standing history as a bowling centre, although neither JLL nor the vendor has been able to establish exactly when it first opened.

Public property records show the Frankston site last changed hands for $3.615 million in August 2015, after previously selling for $1.9 million in 2008 and $1 million in 2005.

An earlier commercial sales campaign shows the Frankston property was already being offered as a tenanted bowling investment more than 15 years ago, with annual net rent of about $200,000 at the time.

However, whether the pins will still be falling in Frankston beyond 2029 remains unknown.

Falconer says TEEG has not indicated whether it intends to exercise its five-year option, with major tenants typically making those decisions closer to their lease renewal date.

“We don’t have any understanding on whether they’ll continue or not,” he says. “Like all leases, we don’t have a crystal ball.”

He says TEEG nevertheless represents a strong tenant covenant, while the site’s long history as a bowling centre demonstrates its established use as an entertainment destination.

For now, it’s business – and bowling – as usual.

The Zone Bowling Frankston property is being marketed via an expressions-of-interest campaign closing at 3pm on September 23.