Investors to breathe new life into State Heritage-listed Port Adelaide wool store building
The old wool store on Santo Pde at Port Adelaide has been sold for $1.5 million to The Ginos Group.
AN INVESTMENT firm that attracted restaurants, bars and cafes to trendy Adelaide laneways, wants to breathe new life into one of Port Adelaide’s oldest wool stores.
The Ginos Group has paid $1.5 million for the 1880-built wool store at 7 Santo Pde, next to Dock One at Port Adelaide.
The company’s property manager, George Ginos, said the State Heritage-listed stone building was “beautiful” and in a good location with plenty of floor space.
But he was tight-lipped on what he would do with the 6000sqm site, which was built as a wool store for Elder Smith & Co Ltd and has been empty for more than 20 years.
“We’re just working through to see what our options are with the space and what we can do,” Mr Ginos said.
“The building is the type of building we like to develop, old and underused, and that is where we find we can add value in other projects we have done.
“People are talking a range of different uses from commercial, residential, retail and so we are just working through that at this point in time.”
The Ginos Group bought all 10 properties along Leigh St in 2003 when more than 60 per cent of them were empty.
Josh Baker runs the Coffee Branch ... just one of the trendy cafes, bars to emerge since Leigh St’s makeover. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt
It has since been transformed into a trendy restaurant, bar and cafe strip.
The company then turned its attention to Peel St where it bought a large building now occupied by popular restaurants Peel St, Bread & Bone and bar Maybe Mae.
Ralph Tonkin, who owns neighbouring business National Storage, said the building would be ideal for apartments and an up-market restaurant.
“I’ve got 150 storage tenants here and they are constantly saying it would make a perfect spot for a nice restaurant,” Mr Tonkin said.
“I think you’d get people pulling their boats into Dock One and coming to eat there.”
Ray White Port Adelaide principal Nick Psarros said the building would be suited for “New York-style apartments”.
“That is what the market wants and at the moment there is just not enough supply so it really is a no-brainer,” Mr Psarros said.
“So if you have the cash, the money and the supply and you can buy you can easily do the fit out on the inside and you have the market already there.”
In 2013, developer Anton Schmidt planned to spend $5 million transforming the old wool store into an entertainment complex with a bowling alley and classic car gallery.
He dumped the idea amid public debate about an explosion risk at the nearby Incitec Pivot fertiliser plant.
However the State Government has since bought the factory, with a view to the company eventually moving off the site.
Incitec Pivot’s lease includes a clause banning the storage of potentially explosive calcium ammonium nitrate in the building.