The 6.3 hectare site at 278-288 Blackshaws Road forms 10 per cent of a pocket of 64 hectares described since 2011 in planning documents as Precinct 15 – industrial zoned land bordered by the West Gate Freeway, Blackshaws, Kyle and New roads, which the government wants replaced with housing.

About 3000 dwellings, some 10 per cent allocated as affordable housing, are expected to be built on the rezoned land which the City of Hobsons Bay council describes as one of Melbourne's most significant urban renewal opportunities.

Part of the affected 64 hectares includes the heritage listed former Gilbertsons Meat Processing Complex, built in 1950.

Arguably, the suburb's most famous industrial occupant is Toyota; its soon-to-be-vacated 68 hectare site in Grieve Parade has also been mooted as a residential infill opportunity.

Precinct 15 is slightly larger than another urban renewal project recently announced by the government called Arden, which covers 56 hectares in North Melbourne.

In mid-2012, former state planning minister, now Opposition Leader, Matthew Guy, made the landmark decision to rezone 240 hectares in Fishermans Bend, covering sites in Port Melbourne and South Melbourne. Since that time, land values have multiplied in the area, as developers propose landmark apartment towers including some rising more than 50 storeys.

Last April, ALP state planning minister Richard Wynne expanded the Fishermans Bend zone to include an employment area. The precinct is now 455 hectares – twice the size of the city centre.

Knight Frank's Stephen Kelly and Danny Clarke, who marketed 278-288 Blackshaws Road, Altona North, declined to comment about any part of the campaign, which targeted developers.

The deal follows another major transaction the agents signed in May, in nearby Maidstone, when a four-hectare site near the Highpoint Shopping Centre sold for $41.5 million setting a record suburban land rate of more than $1030 per square metre.