Ford seeks $75 million-plus from sale of factories in Melbourne and Geelong
Ford Australia can expect to bank more than $75 million from the sale of three high-profile former production plants.
Combined the assets cover 85 hectares of land and include buildings containing an area of more than 265,000 square metres.
In the regional town of Geelong, about 75 kilometres south-west of the Melbourne CBD, the car company is selling the distinctive factory on the south-east corner of Princes Freeway and North Shore Road in Norlane.
The facility contains numerous buildings with heritage value including a red-brick structure at its entrance (pictured, top).
The Geelong Advertiser, which first reported the factory listings, this morning, stated in 2015 that Ford was remediating the Norlane site ahead of divesting it.
The holding, it said, could be replaced with a retail or tourist attraction.
However numerous other development initiatives could also be entertained, according to the marketing agents.
The north side of North Shore Road is zoned residential.
Also in Geelong, Ford is looking to offload a holding on Seabeach Parade in North Shore – near to the Norlane site.
In Campbellfield, 16 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD, the Detroit-based car manufacturer is offering the ex-production factory known as the Broadmeadows Assembly Plant on the Hume Highway.
CBRE’s Dean Hunt, Chris O’Brien and Alex Moffatt are marketing the three-property portfolio via an expressions of interest campaign.
In 2015, Ford moved about 200 office staff based at the Campbellfield site to a modern office in the Victoria Gardens complex in inner-east Richmond.
Ford produced its last car in Australia, a blue Falcon XR6, in late 2016.
Its listing comes two years after General Motors Holden sold a 37-hectare portion of a production plant in Port Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend to the state government for $130 million. This site is earmarked to make way for an employment hub with high-tech industries.
