Mill Park’s former Floridia Cheese factory sells again
The site of Mill Park’s Floridia Cheese factory has traded again – this time following a mortgagee sale campaign.
The purchaser, a developer paying a speculated price of less than $13 million, is expected to proceed with approved plans to replace the 2.1 hectare holding at 328-338 McKimmies Road with 107 townhouses.
The land last traded in October, 2018, for $16.8m – again with that permit.
A year prior to that – when it wasn’t earmarked for any kind of new build – it fetched $10m.
The property was for generations controlled by Sicilian migrants Carmela and Mauro Montalto who established Floridia Cheese there in 1952.
That dairy group is now based in Thomastown and run by descendants.
The family went on to own a substantial real estate portfolio including a 264ha Donnybrook farm sold in controversial circumstances to Dennis Family Homes seven years ago (story continues below).
Previous owner had mooted the site for Bundoora Park
Savills Benson Zhou, Julian Heatherich, Nick Peden and Jesse Radisich closed an expressions of interest campaign for 328-338 McKimmies Rd in late May.
For most of last year the site was seeking off-the-plan buyers as part of a townhouse project branded Bundoora Park.
At the Bundoora border, the parcel is adjacent to a six level student apartment complex and opposite a disused part of an RMIT campus.
It also backs onto a 1980s housing estate constructed around Mill Park Drive – a road paved out of the former Redleap Stables horse training track.
MAB Corporation’s landmark University Hill is about a kilometre east of the former Floridia factory. Mill Park is about 18kms north of Melbourne.
