Fairfax exits print sites in Queensland and NSW
Fairfax Media has put two printing plants in Queensland and NSW on the market following a landmark deal with long-time rival News Corp in July to share printing.
That agreement meant two long-running facilities, at Ormiston in Queensland and Beresfield in NSW, have been decommissioned and have now been listed for sale.
The Ormiston site, 25 kilometres east of the Brisbane CBD, includes 5160 square metres of office and warehouse buildings standing on a 5.2-hectare site.
Ray White agents Nathan Moore, Jonathon Burrowes, Andrew Burke and Matthew Fritzsche have been appointed to broker the property.
Mr Burke said the site on Finucane Road had a variety of redevelopment options. “It’s rare for an opportunity of this scale to become available in the Redlands area,” he said.
“Subject to council approval, development options include retail, commercial, aged care, retirement and residential.”
Further south, on Enterprise Drive in Beresfield, a second printing plant has also been shut down. Colliers International’s Trent Robertson and Byrne Tran are appointed to broker the property.
Constructed in 1998, the warehouse and office complex stands on a 9747-square-metre lot. Local market sources indicated the property could fetch $4 million or more.
Under the agreement between the media companies, News Corp will provide a range of printing services in NSW and Queensland for Fairfax.
Fairfax, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, will use its plant at North Richmond, in NSW, for printing News Corp publications.
Fairfax has already divested much larger plants in Sydney and Melbourne through a progressive restructure of its business operations over recent years.
The Chullora site in Sydney was sold in in early 2015. Charter Hall took control of the 10.3-hectare site near Bankstown after acquiring it for $45 million.
The 37,600-square-metre industrial complex was built by Fairfax in 1995 for almost $340 million with a further $70 million spent upgrading it in 2001,
Charter Hall is now busy building $100 million in new facilities there: a 21,500-square-metre facility for Australia Post and a new 10,000 sq m facility where Lion Nathan has taken up a 15-year pre-commitment.
The cold store facility will be used for milk storage and distribution throughout Sydney.
Meanwhile Fairfax’s once state-of-the-art printing facility near Tullamarine airport has also had a similarly dramatic change of purpose after it was divested three years ago.
It was sold to luxury car dealer Zagame for $16 million.
The distinctive five-storey, ribbed-steel building was opened in 2003 to print The Age and other Fairfax newspapers. It cost about $220 million to develop.
