Fairfax Media has sold its Tullamarine print site in Melbourne to luxury car dealership Zagame Group for $16 million. According to a brief ASX announcement, contracts have been exchanged and settlement of the deal is expected on 21 September 2015:
Fairfax Media Limited is pleased to announce the sale of its Tullamarine print site located in Victoria for $16 million. The property was purchased by Mr Bobby Zagame, Managing Director of The Zagame Group, which owns and operates Zagame Automotive.
Zagame Automotive is the official Victorian dealer for Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. Bobby Zagame is said to have become interested in the site after a proposed deal with property fund manager Charter Hall Group to buy both Tullamarine and Fairfax’s larger Chullora facility in Sydney fell through last month. Fairfax came close to selling the Melbourne plant last year for about $25 million.
Tullamarine was opened in 2003 to print the metropolitan daily The Age and other Fairfax papers. Since shutting down production at Tullamarine three years ago, the company moved some printing presses to a smaller site in Ballarat.
It’s understood Charter Hall remains a likely buyer of the Sydney site, with the sales process being handled by CBRE and Colliers International.
Chullora includes an existing industrial complex of 37,600 sq metres on more than ten hectares of land. The plant was decommissioned last year and the printing operation shifted to a smaller site at North Richmond, NSW.