COMPANY SWOOPS ON MOOLAP SALTWORKS SITE:
Pelligra’s 450ha Moolap deal
THE owner of the former Ford Factory has bought another historic Geelong landmark.
The Pelligra Group has purchased the former Moolap saltworks precinct from the Ridley Corporation.
Chairman Ross Pelligra said the group would start working with the state government and City of Greater Geelong on the future of the 450ha site, which hugs the coastline from the CSIRO to the decommissioned Alcoa site on Point Henry.
“We have bought the (state government) leases and the land,” Mr Pelligra said.
Much of the site has been earmarked under the state government’s Moolap Plan for conservation as the former saltworks are an important wetland system used by a large number of migratory birds.
But it also includes a tract of potential development land on the western flank of Point Henry.
Dating to the 1890s, the saltworks involve interconnected, shallow ponds separated by bunds, with inflows of water managed by a sluice system and sea wall, with the ponds and sea wall having some physical heritage significance.
In September last year, the Pelligra Group bought another former Cheetham Saltworks site in Avalon, where it is working with Melbournebased Aqua Partners Australia to accommodate an advanced aquaculture project.
Mr Pelligra said having only settled the “tricky” Moolap sale a little over a week ago, it was too early to say what the future might hold, but he would be putting together a team to work on it with the government and the council.
The third-generation family-owned industrial and residential development company has also been making a splash in Adelaide after buying the former Holden manufacturing site in 2017 and redeveloping it as “Lionsgate” business park.
The Pelligra Group last week announced a $30m plan to revitalise a major basketball arena in Adelaide in a bid to attract school and sporting groups to the venue.