[ City Central ] Masterplan Thread

[Nathan]

All fine except for the gaming rooms part. Will completely cheapen the entire thing.

[Ben]

Will go before DAC on Thursday.

New Renders:

[[Shuz]]

Nice. Can tell it will be quite popular.

[Ben]

The Developers of The Watson Apartments are in talks wth Aspen over taking over the remainder of the undeveloped sites.

[Will]

The website for this development doesn't work anymore.

[UrbanSG]

It appears that Charter Hall have taken this one over from Aspen, particularly future development on the site.

https://www.charterhall.com.au/News/201 ... quires-50/

An article in today's paper also suggested they'll be working on an updated masterplan over the next 12 months. Up to 30,000 sqm office space is likely to be built but potentially over 3 buildings. Also still talk of a possible hotel/residential component.

[UrbanSG]

Article from today's paper:

New plans afoot for City Central site in Adelaide CBD

Giuseppe Tauriello
The Advertiser
March 25, 2014 10:22AM

LISTED property group Charter Hall will spend up to 12 months developing a new masterplan for the City Central development site, which is likely to add up to 30,000sqm of new office space to the precinct.

Earlier this month the company announced a $29.5 million investment in the Franklin Street Property Trust - effectively taking a 50 per cent stake in the $200 million ATO Building on Franklin Street and around 6500sqm of undeveloped adjacent land.

Charter Hall joint managing director David Harrison said the company would prepare a comprehensive masterplan for the site which could accommodate up to 30,000sqm of office space across three buildings.

“We’re a much better capitalised entity and we’ll look at what makes sense for the site,” he said.

“It could be a potential mixed-use development, it could be hotel, residential or office buildings - we’ll get our development team to look at it closely.”

“Our preferred interest at this stage is to see a large development of office buildings . . . but we’re not in the business of speculative development.”

The ATO Building, ANZ House and the Ernst & Young Building already accommodate close to 80,000sqm of office space at the site.

“If you had more than 100,000sqm of offices there that would be 30 per cent of the prime office supply,” Mr Harrison said.

“But we’ll masterplan on what we think is best for the site and then proceed on de-risking based on demand.”

Mr Harrison also hinted that the company’s $15 million office building at 51 Pirie St could be offloaded as a result of the City Central acquisition.

It has planning approval for a 32,000sqm, 21-level A-grade office tower at the site.

“We’ll look at our strategy for 51 Pirie - we may well look to sell the building, we may look at some sort of joint venture - we’re not quite sure what we’ll do at this stage,” he said.

Charter Hall state manager Matthew Lane, who spearhead the City Central transaction, said recent and future development in the nearby precincts signalled a shift away from the traditional CBD core.

“The city is moving along King William St and now with 70 Franklin coming up it will start to create more of a critical mass along streets like Franklin,” he said.

“It’s a natural extension to the city.”

The City Central acquisition, which is subject to a 12-month delayed settlement, follows Charter Hall’s $60 million purchase of the Southgate Plaza shopping centre in October and the $27 million acquisition of the Electrolux distribution centre at Beverley in 2012.

Mr Harrison said the company would continue to look at opportunities in the Adelaide marketplace.

“I think if you look at the last 12 months we’ve been one of the more active investors in Adelaide,” he said.

“We’ll continue to look at opportunities - we’re opportunity driven.”

Charter Hall’s partner in the Franklin Street Property Trust is Telstra Super.

[bm7500]

What appears to be a site office and some scaffolding has popped up between the GPO and Electra House. I'm not sure what this will be used for. Any thoughts?

[Pants]

^ The Electra House upgrade.

[macbenoy]

Does anyone know what's happening with the GPO redevelopment. Is it still on ice?

[[Shuz]]

Noticed that new fencing has gone up around Electra House and the adjoining vacant block of land. Imminent works about to commence the beer garden / conversion to a pub?

[[Shuz]]

Temporary site office now erected on site. We'll see some action on this soon.

[Will]

From the Advertiser:

Heritage building on Franklin St is set for a multi-million makeover

Giuseppe Tauriello COMERCIAL PROPER
The Advertiser
July 01, 2014 12:00AM



David Burton, Sophia Leopardi and Rob Williams. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt.


IT’S been home to squatters and pigeons for almost 20 years but one of Adelaide’s most loved buildings is about to be given a multi-million dollar upgrade.

The 100-year old State Heritage listed Darling Building on Franklin St has fallen into a dilapidated state, having been left idle since 1997.

But last year the building was acquired for $1.2 million by a group of investors who have a new vision for the 1916 building.

The joint venture group, which includes the directors of Adelaide firm Williams Burton Architecture, will spend more than $4 million on the upgrade.

Williams Burton will relocate to the top floor of the building while tenants will be sought for two more levels of offices.

A property investment and development group has already been secured for a rooftop office space, with plans for a rooftop bar and a restaurant and bar on the basement and ground levels.

Williams Burton director David Burton said the building offered an opportunity to breathe new life into an important part of Adelaide’s history.

“Part of what really appeals about this is the whole concept of a storied building or something you can add a story to,” he said.

“We walked through it a couple of times before we bought it and while it looks pretty bad there’s a lot of really good things we can do with it and that’s what really excited us.”

The building was completed in 1916 for John Darling and Son, which by the end of the 19th century was the biggest shipper of wheat from Australia.

Last year, the building made the Adelaide City Council’s City of Great Buildings list, which was chosen by the public.

Aspen Group had plans to convert the building into apartments as part of its City Central development but offloaded it last year.

Its new owners face the daunting task of restoring the building, through a series of mechanical, electrical and structural works.

Williams Burton director Rob Williams said that while the project would be aided by Adelaide City Council grants, many developers put heritage buildings in the “too hard basket” because of the high cost of upgrades.

“The council is really proactive - they’ve got quite a good pool of local heritage money so we’ve been able to tap into that,” he said.

“But sometimes it just looks too hard - if you sit down and start crunching the numbers you can easily talk yourself out of it.”

“But if we can make this one work we’d be interested in doing it again later and promoting other people to do it.”

Mr Burton said the project would be a model for future developers of heritage buildings to follow.

“We want to create a movement and see this project as a beginning of a story for us,” he said.

“We are wanting to engage with people and tenants that aren’t talking down South Australia, lamenting lost opportunities or using it as an excuse but rather being original confident Adelaideans doing great work.”

The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year

[rhino]

Good luck to them, although I do think this building would look good with a modern looking glass tower rising above it, stepped back from the street frontage.

[[Shuz]]

Good luck to them, although I do think this building would look good with a modern looking glass tower rising above it, stepped back from the street frontage.

Can't happen because the 'pods' of CC8 enroach on the airspace above this building.