Developer buys derelict iconic ETA peanut butter factory

The iconic 1961 ETA peanut butter industrial building at Braybrook has been sold to a developer for $4.1 million.

The Ballarat Road site was designed by Frederick Romberg of the 1950s architectural practice Grounds, Romberg and Boyd and is regarded as an important Modernist industrial building employing glass curtain wall design. The 16,000-square-metre Melbourne site has a heritage overlay.

It was included in the 1962 publication Industriebau, an international text on industrial design, published by the German Institute for Industry.

“Formerly the ETA Butter Factory, this building is of historical significance as part of the economic boom of the post-war period,” says selling agent Richard Hutton from Lemon Baxter.

The industrial site is zoned business 3 in the City of Maribyrnong, which is compatible with office, showroom and or warehouse usage.

Set a short distance from the flagship Masters Hardware site, the area is experiencing transformation from traditional industrial and manufacturing warehouse premises into modern high-tech office/warehouse and showroom/retail facilities, Hutton says.

The location, which was once mooted as a car dealership, is about 10 kilometres from the CBD.

Many of Braybrook’s factories have closed including metal perforators Richardson-Pacific, Rothmans cigarettes and Invicta carpets.

During its time on the Victorian Heritage Register the building was been allowed to fall into disrepair and has been vandalised, including the removal of all the glass panes in about 2008.