Motoring giant Holden has sold its massive Fishermans Bend car manufacturing plant to the Victorian government in a $130 million deal which will see it transformed into an innovation and employment hub.

GM Holden put the 37-hectare site in Port Melbourne on the market last year after it announced the end of its 80-year history of building Australian motor vehicles.

Details about the deal for the brownfield site in Salmon Street have been tightly controlled but BusinessDay has learnt a sale was concluded last week.

The purchase gives the Andrews government control over nearly half the remaining land in the Fishermans Bend industrial area that has not already been rezoned for residential use.