According to Jones Lang LaSalle associate director of warehouse and logistics services Robert Mirabello, who leased the property with Ashley Buller, the Yarraville and Footscray industrial precincts attract tenants who want proximity to the CBD, Citylink and the Western Ring Road network, but don’t want to pay costs commanded by nearby Port Melbourne.

Mr Mirabello said Yarra Valley Farms is paying around $61 per square metre incorporating office and warehouse space. This compares to the average rate of around $100 per square metre for similar space in Port Melbourne.

Yarra Valley Farms acting chief of operations Jan Vydra said the building’s proximity is close to its suppliers many of which are based along Footscray Road. It has another distribution facility in Monbulk in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs.

QLS will relocate from a smaller facility it has outgrown, also in Dandenong.

Knight Frank national director industrial James Templeton negotiated the sale and lease deals.

He expects industrial construction in Melbourne’s south-eastern region to fall to 135,000 square metres next year, from just under 300,000 square metres of industrial space set to open in the area, this year.

The asset was purchased by local private developer Ian Wright, who earlier this month sold a portfolio of industrial assets to Valad Property Group for $51 million.

CB Richard Ellis director Jeremy Lewis, who sold the property with Andrew Stewart, said both owner occupiers and developers showed interest in the property, which is also near an Eastlink motor way exit.

Crabtree’s director Gavin Dumas marketed the property with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Richard Height and Colliers International’s Tim Grant.

Last month, the Pellicano Group confirmed it would speculatively build five office warehouse buildings totalling 7000 square metres, and a separate office building of 3900 square metres at a site it owns in Moorabbin.

In August this year, Pellicano Group founders Frank, Nunzio and Assunta Pellicano announced they would resign their positions to become non-executive directors of the development and fund management company leaving their sons to formally take over the family empire.

The business, which turns over more than $250 million a year in commercial property sales and management fees, is one of Melbourne’s biggest private developers.

“It fit our criteria down to the ground,” Ronald Serry, managing director of the Rabinov Trust, said. “It’s a single-tenanted building on a long-term lease with fixed annual increases.”

Located at 365 Fitzgerald Road, less than half a kilometre from the Western Ring Road, the property includes a two level office and showroom, an attached distribution warehouse and a freestanding warehouse on 29,860 square metres of land, with additional space available for expansion.

Bridgestone Australia has a 12.5 year lease over the site, and the final price for the deal will be fixed depending on the rent as of June 30th.

“We are delighted to have secured another property for our portfolio that fits with our investment criteria,” said Mr Serry. “This comes less than a month after we entered into a joint venture arrangement with ANZ and we believe that this is a positive sign for the future of the ANZ Rabinov Property Trust.”

With the success completion of the latest acquisition, ANZ Rabinov Property Trust will have more than $250 million in assets under management across 17 Australian properties.

In other recent deals, it was reported this week that Marksx Property Group will pay close to $55 million for a 78 hectare development site in Truganina in Melbourne’s west. It plans to find a joint venture partner to develop an industrial estate.

Late last year MPG sold a 42.5 hectare industrial site in Derrimut to Australand for $32.5 million.

Earlier this year the City of Hume approved an application to subdivide almost 40,000 square metres of existing warehouses into five separate tenancies. It also approved plans to develop a new road into the industrial park, Kraft Drive, which would create 27 industrial allotments which the developer plans to sell.

Grocery chain Not Quite Right will lease the largest warehouse on the site, committing to 8000 square metres, while Pronto Fresco Foods has leased around 7000 square metres. A third lease to The Fresh Cheese Company, for an undisclosed amount of space, has also been signed. The three tenants each signed for ten years with a starting rent of around $51 per square metre.

Kraft sold the property to Delany’s company City & Suburban Developments after it moved its biscuit production to China. At the time of sale the factory was expected to sell for around $15 million.

The vacant properties range in size from 1623 square metres to 4174 square metres, with the average block being 2500 square metres.

“Land at the estate sold to a mix of developers and owner occupiers, who will appoint a builder to develop them a new office warehouse facility” said Lemon Baxter associate director Richard Hutton, who marketed the project with Colliers International’s Lincoln Reynolds. “Most of the owner occupiers that bought in the park have developed their own sites in the past, so understand the procedure.”

“We only have one lot remaining for sale which has a 38 metre frontage to Salmon Street and a total area of 3,611 sqm,” said Mr Hutton.

One of the sites will make way for a cafe, to service the local industry which includes Toyota, Kraft, Boral and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory and Platform Science Lab,

Mr Hutton said proactive owner occupiers that choose to manage the development process themselves, work out to be better off financially than those who buy a new developed office warehouse building.

Phillip Court Business Park was jointly subdivided by Mirvac and Australia Super on land that adjoins and originally formed part of General Motors Holden headquarters in Port Melbourne.

Mirvac developed a new headquarters for Holden on part of the land in 2005, and retained a portion for itself.

Ford public affairs manager Sinead McAlary told Capital Gain it has no immediate plans to sell the site, on the high profile corner of Melbourne Road and North Shore Road, which it will vacate in mid 2010.

Knight Frank Geelong director Simon Jarman said the closure may pave the way for council to rezone a large parcel of industrial land around Corio Quay from industrial to comprehensive retail development. Such development would add to the existing high profile retailers across the road, he added.

About five years ago, private investor Frank Costa, chairman of the Costa fruit and vegetable empire and president of the Geelong Football Club, bought an adjoining 15.2 hectare block of land he plans to turn into a 41,000 square metre bulky goods centre. The development depends on the council’s rezoning.

Ms McAlary said that while Ford has supported Costa’s permit application, it is not linked in any way to its announcement that it will cease manufacturing at the site.

The two Melbourne facilities include an office warehouse at 25 – 37 Kitchen Road in Dandenong, leased to cork manufacturer Amorim Cork Australia, and a distribution centre at 17 – 21 Strezlecki Avenue in Sunshine, leased to transport group LS Booth Transport Pty Ltd.

Together, these properties returned $943,000 in rent per annum and were expected to contribute to around $12 million of the portfolio’s value.

The biggest property in the portfolio is the Macgregor Mega Centre about 12 kilometres south of Brisbane. The 12,486 square metre retail centre is anchored by electrical retailer Clive Peeters and bed retailer Bedshed, and returns around $1.8 million per annum. The centre was expected to contribute around $30 million to the value of the portfolio.

Valad Property Group chief executive officer real estate investment Martyn McCarthy, and Australian Unity head of property Martin Hession declined to comment when contacted by The Age.

Selling agents CB Richard Ellis managing director Matt Haddon and Shane Robb also declined to comment.

Valad Property Group this week announced it would buy Carter Holt Harvey’s Australian and New Zealand property portfolio for $277 million. The portfolio included industrial warehouses, office buildings and development sites in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

In Victoria, the purchase included an industrial warehouse building at 21 – 35 Ricketts Road in Mount Waverley.

Australian Unity meanwhile is expected to reap around $30 million from the sale of an industrial property portfolio it put on the market last week. The portfolio includes two vacant warehouses in the south-eastern suburb of Hallam, and a fully leased warehouse in the eastern suburb of Blackburn.