Wangaratta's Woollen Mills site has been conditionally sold and new owners are carrying out planning assessments for the land's future development.
It's believed that if all planning processes are met, a large format retail homemaker type centre will be built there, after a century of occupation by Wangaratta Woollen Mills and Australian Country Spinners.
Selling agent Mike Noble from Garry Nash and Co Real Estate said the buyers are outlaying considerable finances to assess the site.
"We marketed the business opportunity as a potential bulky goods/homemaker centre and that's the intention of the buyers," Mr Noble said.
The first change locals will see is the closure of the Mill Shop on 31 October, as Wangaratta Woollen Mills moves to online only sales.
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Its message on social media about the Mill Shop closure read: "Thank you for your support if you've visited our Mill Shop over the years, and we look forward to continuing to keep yarn on your hooks and needles via our online store".
As for the existing buildings, Mr Noble said several are at end of life, however, he believes a couple would be kept on site.
The 5.77-hectare block has been home to the yarn industry since it opened in 1923, and its growth over the decades went in hand in hand with the city.
In the early 1970s staff numbers reached 500 before import tariffs and competition from imported yarns started to have a drastic effect.
Many Australian companies started to source their materials from overseas and local mill jobs were lost.
Staff numbers were quickly reduced to around 200.
The 1980s and 1990s brought the beginning of a new direction for the Wangaratta Woollen Mills when it was renamed Australian Country Spinners and acquired the brands Cleckheaton, Panda Yarns, Patons Australia and Shepherd of New Zealand.
In 2017 Australian Country Spinners was purchased by Bendigo Woollen Mills.
Wangaratta Woollen Mills has since had its original name reinstated and also its original purpose – to be a wholly Australian owned and operated spinning mill which produces the finest quality commercial and hand knitting yarns.
