This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MELBOURNE-based developer Pelligra Group has acquired Ford’s historic Geelong and Broadmeadows car manufacturing sites, with plans to invest more than $500 million to convert the properties into industrial estates.
Pelligra has now taken control of the manufacturing hubs of major auto rivals Ford and Holden following the industry’s exit from Australia, and similarly plans to turn the former Holden site in Adelaide’s Elizabeth into an industrial and business park.
Ford will retain the buildings it still uses on the Geelong and Broadmeadows sites – some parts in Geelong are subject to heritage restrictions –for innovation, research and development.
The deal with Ford now puts Pelligra in charge of up to 85 hectares of land and a combined 265,000 sqm of factory space. Pelligra will retrofit the existing buildings to accommodate manufacturing and innovative technology businesses, and the first tenants are expected to be on site within a year.
The Geelong site will be known as Fortek Geelong, and the 60-hectare Broadmeadows site as Assembly Broadmeadows.
Pelligra has committed $500 million for stage one of the renewal project – a figure that includes the property transaction price – and expects that up to 2,000 jobs will be delivered initially across the sites, mainly in technology and new business.
“Pelligra has a strong track record of projects that deliver jobs and rejuvenate communities,” chairman of Pelligra Group, Ross Pelligra said, addind the group has committed to ultimately delivering 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in the next five to 10 years.
Around 1,300 jobs were lost following Ford’s announcement in 2013 that it would shut down its Australian manufacturing operations. Manufacturing operations at the Broadmeadows plant ended in October of 2016 after 57 years, while the Geelong factory had opened in 1925.
“Ford’s Geelong and Broadmeadows sites have played a central role in the history of Australia’s auto industry as centres of technical excellence, and have been part of the fabric of the local communities for generations,” said chief executive officer of Ford Australia and New Zealand, Kay Hart said.
“We are pleased that Pelligra Group will build on Ford’s ongoing engineering and design presence by adding new opportunities for innovation, ideas and business in Geelong and Broadmeadows.”
In Adelaide, Pelligra took on the 123-hectare Elizabeth site in 2017 with intentions to build a commercial, manufacturing, construction engineering and auto hub named Lionsgate Business Park, a reference to Holden’s logo.
At least 1,600 people are expected to make up the workforce at the $250 million business park.
Pelligra has been collecting a string of sites across Melbourne’s north and western suburbs, including an 8.5-hectare industrial development site in Melton, the 39-hectare Huntsman site in Brooklyn, the iconic Footscray furniture showroom of Franco Cozzo, and the 12-hectare Marathon Foods site in Laverton.
Australian Property Journal
