![The Victorian Livestock Exchange was opened at Pakenham in 1999 and was famously the first saleyard in Victoria to be built undercover with a soft floor. Picture by Bryce Eishold The Victorian Livestock Exchange was opened at Pakenham in 1999 and was famously the first saleyard in Victoria to be built undercover with a soft floor. Picture by Bryce Eishold](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bryce.eishold/7b4e1b1b-2a9c-45c3-a8dc-93cf84affd1b.jpeg/r0_376_4032_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Livestock selling pens at Melbourne's last remaining saleyard will be removed by the end of 2024 after the seven-hectare site received interest from more than 20 prospective buyers.
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The Victorian Livestock Exchange on Exchange Drive, Pakenham was listed for sale in early-April and took less than 60 days to sell following a month-long period seeking expressions of interest for a new buyer.
The 68,240 square-metre property was purchased by an undisclosed consortium of buyers, the VLE said.
It was listed for sale with a price guide of $30 million.
VLE director Graham Osborne, who was the founding chair of the company and developed the site from 1997, confirmed the sale of the property on Tuesday.
"I can't disclose the price, but the directors are satisfied," he said.
"There is a rush now to remove the pens and scales and that sort of stuff, but the building itself remains."
![More than 93,000 cattle passed through the Victorian Livestock Exchange at Pakenham in 2022-23. Picture by Bryce Eishold More than 93,000 cattle passed through the Victorian Livestock Exchange at Pakenham in 2022-23. Picture by Bryce Eishold](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bryce.eishold/7ec1cab1-6329-4bcf-9f39-de532aa4e46b.JPG/r0_36_4032_2303_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The industrial zone one site is located 600 metres from Princess Freeway and in an area where industrial land values have increased by 40 per cent since 2021, according to real estate newsletter The Industrialist.
Mr Osborne said the VLE had until the end of the year to remove the livestock selling pens and other related equipment, such as weighing scales, before the December settlement.
"It will almost certainly be subdivided, but that will be up to the new buyers," he said.
"A big lot like that is difficult to handle in one parcel.
"It's alright for a saleyard, but the site does have a lot of vacant land there that is used for parking and turning trucks around, and all of that vacant land is incurring huge fees in land tax."
![The seven-hectare site included a truck wash, two street frontages and a dam at the rear of the property. Picture supplied by Colliers The seven-hectare site included a truck wash, two street frontages and a dam at the rear of the property. Picture supplied by Colliers](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bryce.eishold/e640c451-117a-42a5-b62d-a091bd87993b.jpg/r0_29_780_468_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The facility was opened on February 2, 1999 by the then-deputy premier Patrick McNamara.
The saleyard employs up to 25 staff and processed more than 93,000 cattle in 2022-23.
Five agencies operate at Pakenham, including Alex Scott & Staff, Baw Baw Livestock, Nutrien, Everitt Seeley & Bennetts and Elders Delaney Livestock & Property, all of which have transferred to the VLE's South Gippsland saleyards near Leongatha.
In November 2023, the VLE made the surprise announcement it would close the facility on June 30 after revealing it was paying $10,000 a week in land tax fees to keep the operation running.
"Land tax was in excess of $550,000, so it costs us $10,000 each week just to open our doors," VLE managing director Brian Paynter said at the time.
![The VLE at Pakenham remained open during COVID-19 lockdowns. Picture by Bryce Eishold The VLE at Pakenham remained open during COVID-19 lockdowns. Picture by Bryce Eishold](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bryce.eishold/5da4b70f-fc01-4587-917c-ad0d699fc5a6.JPG/r0_307_6000_3694_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Osborne said the Pakenham saleyards were constructed in the mid-1990s as a result of the demise of its Dandenong counterpart.
"We built it to last 50 years and there has been no deterioration of the pens, and I certainly did not expect to be taking the pens out or selling the facility," he said.
"I thought we would get pretty close to 50 years, but in fact we are only half way.
"We knew change was coming to the area, but we thought it would be gradual and we didn't expect to see the explosion of development we've seen in the last five years."
The roof and steel structure of the Pakenham facility was built so it could be retrofitted into a factory in the event the site was sold, but Mr Osborne said the future of the building was up in the air.
![For a short period, cattle were sold through the ring during COVID-19 to maximise social distancing. Picture by Bryce Eishold For a short period, cattle were sold through the ring during COVID-19 to maximise social distancing. Picture by Bryce Eishold](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bryce.eishold/57912bf3-b2fc-456f-832d-fd7c56aca8cf.JPG/r0_199_2435_1576_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It was famously the first saleyard in Victoria to be built undercover with a soft floor.
"It is yesterday's building," he said.
"Buildings nowadays need concrete walls and need to be dust-proof, fire-proof, vermin-proof, chemical-proof and noise-proof, all of which the VLE is not.
"It was built with good-quality material, all BHP steel, so it was built with first-class materials, but it doesn't change the fact that it has only one wall on the west of the building made from galvanised corrugated iron."
It will be the second Victorian saleyard to close this month after Regional Livestock Exchanges announced it would terminate its lease on the council-owned Camperdown saleyards, with the final sale on June 25.
The final Pakenham store cattle sale will be held on Thursday, June 27.
"I had cattle in the first sale, and I will have cattle in the last sale," Mr Osborne said.
"A lot of the graziers who sold cattle in the first sale wouldn't be alive today.
"It is a different world altogether, in fact it's completely different."
The sale was conducted by Colliers in conjunction with Facey.
Colliers associate director and head of industrial and logistics capital markets in Victoria Daniel Telling described the location of the Pakenham saleyards as a "gateway industrial site".
"The south-east is widely recognised as Melbourne's strongest-performing logistics and industrial precinct and is highly sought after for both developers and investors," he said.
"It was a high-profile and highly-successful campaign given the strength of the industrial and logistics sector, particularly in Melbourne's south-eastern corridor."