Wagga valuer Christopher Egan said the fine print was the tenant needed to be “locked-in” long-term, generating up to decades worth of “continuous” return on investment.

The clandestine sale of the Wagga Service NSW building on Fox Street is the latest commercial property to be sold for big dollars to an outside investor.

According to commercial agency Burgess Rawson, the Fox Street site sold for more than $2.1 million late last month.

The advertisement said the government tenant was on a 15-year lease, with “attractive” incremental increases.

“A lot of these outside investors will buy these properties sight unseen,” Mr Egan said.

“They know if there’s a lease up to 20 years, it’s going to keep generating those continuous yields.”

The spur of outside interest in government-leased commercial property comes as a debate ensues over the future of the main street.

Wagga commercial property agent Greg Howick, of Fitzpatricks, recently strongly denied the main street would succumb to the growing reach of online shopping.

One Wagga business likely at risk of internet vulnerability is Collins Booksellers on Baylis Street.

But while many global booksellers such as Borders have fallen into bankruptcy, Collins’ owner Peter Halicki said other bookstore operations had remained viable and even grown.

Collins recently expanded its shopping floor space.

“The internet doesn’t seem to affect us very much. Our sales are up 14 per cent from the last year,” Mr Halicki said.

“So I believe physical shopping is social, it has to have integrity because a shopkeeper has to stand by their product and it’s real.”

But another main street business owner, Helen Foley, of Pheonix Accounting and Business Services, said “90 per cent” of her business clients had complained about “crippling” commercial rent.

And she said she feared Wagga’s “eclectic” main street – a combination of retail outlets, cafes and restaurants – would be lost as a result.

“The rent is absolutely crippling,” Ms Foley said. “We moved from upstairs near the Commonwealth Bank to near Crust and we’re in a bigger space. It wasn’t that much further away yet it was half-price – a $20,000 (per annum) difference.”

Mr Egan said commercial rent in the main streets varied, but he said locations near the Sturt Mall and Marketplace generally attracted stronger prices.

It comes as the Marketplace undergoes major renovations to house an additional 20 retailers.