Victorian government buys Port Melbourne factory for $130 million

[Wretched]

Motoring giant Holden has sold its massive Fishermans Bend car manufacturing plant to the Victorian government in a $130 million deal which will see it transformed into an innovation and employment hub.

GM Holden put the 37-hectare site in Port Melbourne on the market last year after it announced the end of its 80-year history of building Australian motor vehicles.

Details about the deal for the brownfield site in Salmon Street have been tightly controlled but BusinessDay has learnt a sale was concluded last week.

The purchase gives the Andrews government control over nearly half the remaining land in the Fishermans Bend industrial area that has not already been rezoned for residential use.

The site will be developed as an aerospace, defence, marine and automotive design precinct, industry and employment minister Wade Noonan said.

"We have a clear vision for this site and the future of Fishermans Bend, which builds on our strengths in defence, education and advanced manufacturing," Mr Noonan said.

Property insiders said the deal may be a precursor to further zoning changes, particularly as nearby areas are transformed into residential suburbs.

Any future rezoning will provide the state, rather than private land speculators, with a multi-million dollar windfall.

he government will set up an innovation and employment centre on the site with the support of Melbourne's major universities.

As part of the deal, Holden will lease its engine plant on Todd Road until the end of the year and maintain its corporate headquarters, a design studio and engineering office with up to 1000 employees in Salmon Street.

"Our headquarters, including Holden's advanced international design studios and engineering facilities, will remain at Fishermans Bend for years to come," Holden said.

The car giant announced in December 2013 it would end manufacturing in Australia by 2017 following the then-Abbott government's refusal to maintain subsidies to keep the company manufacturing local vehicles beyond 2020.

The iconic car maker will keep selling cars locally but all production will shift offshore, mainly to Thailand and Korea.

Holden's decision was quickly followed by Toyota who announced it too would close its Australian factories in the same year.

Their closure, coupled with Ford's exit from local manufacturing, will decimate thousands of jobs in Victoria and South Australia and shatter local supply chains.

The huge Port Melbourne plant sits on the boundary of large parcels of land in Fishermans Bend that were controversially rezoned overnight in 2012 by the former Liberal government to residential use.

The rezoning delivered windfall profits to land holders but was unmatched worldwide for its failure to plan for transport and other key services, a scathing confidential report found last year.

Real estate agents CBRE handled the sale but would not comment. The exit of the global carmakers from Australia has prompted a round of property chess, with large listed players like Goodman, Dexus and GPT Group believed to be bidding for the land spoils.

Property giant Goodman was understood to be the underbidder in the year-long sale process. It would likely have developed the site for warehousing, logistics or other industrial uses.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/pr...13-grfc1t.html

[FormulaFG]

Sounds very similar to what the SA government did with Mitsubishi's Tonsley plant.

Plenty of proud pollies beating their chests and slapping each others backs but for all the money and hype what has it really achieved? Sure, they have redeveloped the site and made it nicer to look at but not much else.

[tranquilized]

Whatever will or won't come of this, it's a far better approach than our previous state governments who re-zoned most of Fishermans Bend with little warning or foresight, giving their land holding mates a huge financial windfall with zero provision for public services. Docklands MKII on its way...

[vbvbvb088]

I hope they keep the art-deco exterior.

[Vesper Martini]

37 Hectares in Port Melbourne for 130 Million sounds like a bargain!
I wonder if this is a deal to close off some of the Government support over the years

[FG50T]

I'm picturing the biggest Centrelink in Australia