Dairy Giant Puts South Brisbane Site on Block

French dairy giant Lactalis has put part of its South Brisbane holdings on the block.

For sale is 108 Montague Road, currently being used for warehousing.

Lactalis Australia chief executive Mal Carseldine said the sale was driven by a strategic decision to sell down property surplus to requirements.   

He stressed that “we will be maintaining our presence at the Lactalis factory at 65 Montague Road, on the banks of the Brisbane River, which is further north of the 108 Montague Road site”.

“Our factory at 65 Montague Road continues to play an indispensable role in our operations,” he said. 

“While I acknowledge this does create uncertainty for the small team working out of 108 Montague Road, operations will continue at the site as usual until we have clarity from a buyer on their intent and how that may align with our own ongoing operational plans.”

Carseldine said the company’s strategic review of non-manufacturing assets was conducted to ensure the business maintained its competitiveness. 

Greg Woods and Anthony Ott of Savills have been appointed to handle the sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign due to start in about three weeks.

The 1.7ha site is made up of 17 amalgamated lots and has frontages to Montague Road and Cordelia, Brereton and Oxford streets.

Intial town planning reports indicate a three-tower development of 2300 apartments would be possible.

Sales of similar sized sites along the Brisbane River point to a price of $5000 to $7000 per square metre.

The site is across Montague Road from the Visy Glass recycling facility, which was acquired in 2022 by the-then Palaszczuk government and earmarked for a temporary media centre for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Post-Games it will become a public park.

Visy’s $500-million glass recycling plant at Staplyton, in the far north of the Gold Coast, will replace the South Brisbane factory. It is currently under construction and due to come online in 2025.

The Lactalis warehouse is in the Kurilpa’s section of South Brisbane—in June last year, the Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct Plan temporary local planning instrument was passed by the Brisbane City Council.

The Urban Developer reported at the time that it could make way for buildings as tall as 90 storeys.

In January, Brisbane’s Stockwell Development Group filed plans for a residential tower in the neighbourhood. 

Its 1490sq m site at 175 Melbourne Street is currently home to a two-storey commercial building and has not been developed or subject to any other applications for at least 20 years.

If approved by Brisbane City Council, Stockwell’s tower will consist of 150 apartments, in a mix of two to five bedrooms. 

The 30-storey building will consist of three storeys of basement parking and three storeys of podium with an extensive communal rooftop area.