Fairfax has finally offloaded both its former metro printing plants, with the $45m sale of its Sydney facility to property group Charter Hall confirmed.

The sale comes soon after the Tullamarine site in Melbourne was sold to car dealer Bobby Zagame for $16m last week, with plans to turn it into an auto distribution centre.

Finally closing the deal means Fairfax will bank $61m for both plants, a handy $6m more than the $55m deal with Charter Hall that fell through a month ago.

It is, however, less than the $70m it had hoped for when it shut them down last year with the loss of 400 jobs, and far less than the more than $600m it cost to build them.

[Related: Newspapers in flux]

The 37,000sqm plant on a 10.3ha site in Chullora will become part of the property group’s Core Plus Industrial Fund (CPIF), which buys industrial properties wholesale before selling or leasing them later.

Fairfax-owned Australian Financial Review says Charter Hall is in discussions to lease the plant to automotive and logistics companies, and could also split it up and lease it in separate parts.

It may also build additional facilities on unused parts of the site, completing refurbishments early to mid-2016 depending on how extensive they are.

CPIF fund manager Paul Ford says: “The Chullora acquisition presents a strategic site acquisition in which CPIF can increase the floor space and capture strong tenant demand that exists for space within prime Sydney industrial precincts.”

Chullora cost $315m to build in 1996 and another $70m to upgrade in 2001. The presses were either sold, scrapped or moved to upgraded regional facilities in Richmond, NSW and Ballarat, Vic.

Fairfax says in an ASX statement that contracts have been exchanged and settlement is scheduled for November 2.

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