Gateway Plaza, home to a Coles, Aldi and Kmart among other chain and specialty stores, was placed on the market on October 11 and is expected to fetch $70 million or more according to its selling agents.

The Princes Highway shopping centre sits on the city's largest parcel of land zoned commercial one, which covers 6.2 hectares and accommodates 926 car spaces.

Gateway owners have also put a neighbouring 5.6-hectare stretch of land on the east side of the centre on separate sale.

Colliers selling agent Lachlan MacGillivray said he expected the development to keep its appeal to prospective buyers.

"This is an asset that continues to attract very strong interest from both private and institutional capital because of its location and dominance in the market," he said.

"It's an asset that's got balanced land adjoining it which gives the purchaser optionality around what they do moving forward. Last time around there was really strong interest in it and we're already fielding significant interest on it this time around."

The centre was sold for just more than $39 million in 2014 to Sydney-based investment group Armada Funds Management before the company was taken over by MA Financial Group.

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Mr MacGillivray said sales of commercial sites like Gateway were common when funds neared the end of their term. "Most of these funds have a lifecycle," he said. "When they reach the end of a term, they typically sell the assets."

He said sub-regional or medium-sized shopping centres had been gaining popularity in regional areas and tipped Gateway's sale to be the highest in Warrnambool's commercial sale history.

"There has been heightened investor activity for sub-regional centres particularly in regional locations, with (the past financial year) experiencing over $1.4 billion in... sales nationally," he said. "In terms of shopping centre sales, I'm not aware of any that'd be bigger."

Warrnambool City Council city growth director Andrew Paton said he was anticipating the centre would get a lot of interest given the size of the development.

"Based on Warrnambool's strong track record of economic growth, such large parcels of Commercial-zoned land use would be expected to attract a high level of interest," he said.

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