[SWP] Lot 14 (Old RAH Site)

[Patrick_27]

I went along to a East End Association presentation about the ORAH site. The guest speaker was John Hanlon, CEO of Renewal SA.

John played the main proposal video and then went through a slide show, discussing the site, new CBD high school and how it all connects to the East End.

Here are a few points I picked up in his presentation:
-The successful bidder does not have development rights yet, only exclusivity to propose. It may go back to market if the developer fails along the way.
-As soon as the hospital has moved out (a move that should be fast once underway), the East Wing will be demolished by Renewal SA and returned to parklands, even if the developer hasn't started yet.
-The leasehold will be made available to the developer in stages, meaning certain milestones will need to be achieved before they get more land to work on.
-All except two of the From Road buildings will go, excluding the IW "something" research unit.
-Interest for the Innovation part of the precinct is expected the whole nation, including China, as John Holland (one of the developers) is owned by the Chinese government. John said that the developer has already got interested parties.
-Concert Hall and Art Gallery are not funded yet, the business case is due to be competed by March 2017, before the state budget.
-The site currently has around 10,500 visitors daily, the development without the cultural additions will generate around 9,300 visitors daily.

Among the attendees were councillor Houssam Abad and Adelaide MP Rachel Sanderson.

Houssam asked questions around using the information of the site to show investors the potential of the area by summarising the information available (such as visitors, etc) and putting it into an infographic. John advised that more information will be coming out as the site design and components are finalised, especially the cultural parts.

Disappointingly, I saw Rachel on her phone most of the time while John gave his presentation. Afterwards, another lady made comments about the hospital that seemed very political regarding the new hospital. I am paraphrasing and summarising here, but this is approximately how it went.

Lady: "So now that the hospital is not opening for another year, and the demolition will take a year, what will happen to the site?"
John: "The bulldozers won't move in until everyone is out. I can't give you a date because that's SA Health's responsibility. All we know is that we will be ready with bulldozers within a week of everyone being out of the hospital."
Lady: "So this will be a construction site until 2018!"
John: "No, we will take 12 months from when everyone moves out. In the meantime, there will still be 10,500 visitors per day. The new hospital is outside our control."
Lady: "Until 2018!"
John: "Right, Moving on..."

I later saw Rachel, along with what appeared to be her adviser and the lady chatting exclusively between each other after the event. If the lady is a close friend, employee or part of the party, then that is a really terrible way to come to an information session and potiticise something that has nothing to do with the actual presentation. I would have no qualms in Abiad replacing her in the next election.

If I'm completely honest, Rachel Sanderson is a complete flog. It's anyone's guess as to how she won pre-selection, let alone the seat of Adelaide. She comes to these events and is either on her phone, leaves shortly after arriving or hasn't the slightest idea about where she is. I met her at an opening night party for a theatre show at the Arts Theatre on Angas Street, sometime early on in the event she turned to me (as she was holding her phone typing) and asked: "What's the name of this theatre again?" followed by: "And what was the name of tonight's show?" then continued to write a posting for her social media accounts. Shortly after I quizzed her on Arts funding for SA and she told me to refer to the Liberal Party manifest, couldn't actually deliver one proper answer (without perhaps referring to the Labor failures first). I don't know any of the people from this forum personally, but all of you would make a better candidate for public office than her.

[PeFe]

It seems the SA government may have bigger plans for the old RAH site than previously released proposals.
From In Daily

LEAKED: The futuristic secret plans for the old RAH site

A leaked State Government document shows what is really planned for the rejuvenation of the old RAH site - and the radical vision goes well beyond what has been announced, including driverless shuttles, on-site power generation, a "disruptive" high-tech retirement village, and the backing of a major international hotel brand.


Unreleased plans for the old RAH site show concert goers outside the entrance to an underground concert hall.
InDaily can reveal exclusively that the development – dubbed “The Magnet” – is planned to include a Marriott-branded, five-star, 180-room hotel, connected to a 1500-seat underground concert hall and rehearsal space for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

The leaked document – co-branded with the Government logo and those of private-sector partners John Holland and Commercial & General – includes a broad range of details that were stripped from the Government announcement provided to the Murdoch press in late October.

he original announcement focused on residential apartments, open space and a large hotel. A subsequent leak to The Advertiser suggested there would be a concert hall and a contemporary art gallery on the site, but today’s revelations go much further. A promotional brochure – leaked to the Opposition – shows much more detail, including some radical proposals.

While the Government has made it clear it is still considering whether to fund a new contemporary art gallery, the promotional document shows how close it came to announcing its location on the old RAH site, as well as the long called-for new concert hall for Adelaide.

The question now is why these elements – and many other details contained in the leaked document – were stripped from the publicly-released plan. The Opposition says the leak raises questions about divisions in cabinet over the project’s major public elements.

Full article : http://indaily.com.au/news/2016/11/17/l ... -rah-site/

[Ben]

Foskey is quoted as saying: “Marriott International Inc is excited at the prospect of bringing our flagship Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand to Adelaide. The elements are all in place in this bold and visionary plan for a wonderful international standard hotel that is very much in keeping with its beautiful surroundings in Adelaide.”

The hotel would have a driverless shuttle stop, and a direct connection to the concert hall.

Marriott Hotels confirmed that it was a project partner but its final involvement was subject to “further discussions” with the Government.

A spokesman for Foskey told InDaily: “Marriott International has been working closely with our partners Commercial & General and John Holland, who have recently been named by the State Government as the exclusive preferred proponent to reinvigorate the old Royal Adelaide Hospital precinct.

“A hotel is one component of the precinct. We are delighted to be involved. Subject to the outcome of further discussions with the state, we very much look forward to operating the hotel under our world-famous Marriott brand.”

[madelaide]

I appreciate the creativity of this person's proposal, however they obviously don't have an idea of what a concert hall is... Because it wouldn't fit in a building of that size.

...Looks like I'm not the only person lacking your level of knowledge on concert halls! Room for one has been included in latest plans for the old RAH. Your vision might be different to mine, but having seen anything from classical music to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Melbourne's Hamer Hall, I think there's easily a place for a 1000 seater on the RAH site, using the current buildings as an entrance.

Furthermore, having lone space and sports museum/s is kind of unnecessary if our state museum had the capacity to have area designated to these things.

Does our State Museum have the capacity for an area designated to displaying Sports and Space Travel memorabilia? If so, I'm for including it there. Otherwise, I think it's an important part of SA's past and future, and a location should be created. Sidenote: here's hoping the energy wasted on a Nuclear Dump shifts towards a push for a space exploration and launch site up north, using the Holden site to build parts.

And the Madam Tussauds idea? Why? A portrait gallery would make more sense...

I second a portrait gallery, but as part of the contemporary arts centre. I'm sure decent numbers of cash bearing folk would find Archibald pieces, or possibly an Anh Do collection, fascinating. Madam Tussauds was a tacky inclusion but I was scrambling for money pits that pull a crowd.

[ghs]

FFS, how about the state government just focuses on sorting out the problems with the new hospital
instead of f...ing around with plans for the old hospital site. Correct me if I am wrong but nothing can
be done with the old RAH until the new one is open. The situation with the new hospital is getting beyond
a joke.

The new RAH is the biggest infrastructure project in the state's history. It was always going to blow out. If our politicians such as Jack Snelling and Jay Weatherill were worth the money they get paid then they would have factored
more contingency into the timeline / schedule.

[Goodsy]

FFS, how about the state government just focuses on sorting out the problems with the new hospital
instead of f...ing around with plans for the old hospital site. Correct me if I am wrong but nothing can
be done with the old RAH until the new one is open. The situation with the new hospital is getting beyond
a joke.

The new RAH is the biggest infrastructure project in the state's history. It was always going to blow out. If our politicians such as Jack Snelling and Jay Weatherill were worth the money they get paid then they would have factored
more contingency into the timeline / schedule.

The Government is capable of doing more than 1 thing at once

[SRW]

That's ridiculous. Government isn't a zero sum game, where all energy is directed to one thing at a time. More importantly, the lead-in time for a project like the ORAH redevelopment is significant, such that if plans aren't finalised soon we'll be left with a site that is dormant and economically damaging to the East End.

[ghs]

That's ridiculous. Government isn't a zero sum game, where all energy is directed to one thing at a time. More importantly, the lead-in time for a project like the ORAH redevelopment is significant, such that if plans aren't finalised soon we'll be left with a site that is dormant and economically damaging to the East End.

Mate, sounds like the NRAH won't be open for another 12 months or more. Even when the new hospital opens there will need to be a transition period of around 6 months with both hospitals open. So we're still looking at the ORAH being open for at least another 18 months. No need to get carried away with fancy plans at this stage.

[Norman]

That's ridiculous. Government isn't a zero sum game, where all energy is directed to one thing at a time. More importantly, the lead-in time for a project like the ORAH redevelopment is significant, such that if plans aren't finalised soon we'll be left with a site that is dormant and economically damaging to the East End.

Mate, sounds like the NRAH won't be open for another 12 months or more. Even when the new hospital opens there will need to be a transition period of around 6 months with both hospitals open. So we're still looking at the ORAH being open for at least another 18 months. No need to get carried away with fancy plans at this stage.

6 months of transition? According to who? What's your source?

12 months ago people complained that nothing has been planned for the site. Now people complain that something has been planned 'too soon' or 'too far in advance'? Really?

[Waewick]

That's ridiculous. Government isn't a zero sum game, where all energy is directed to one thing at a time. More importantly, the lead-in time for a project like the ORAH redevelopment is significant, such that if plans aren't finalised soon we'll be left with a site that is dormant and economically damaging to the East End.

Mate, sounds like the NRAH won't be open for another 12 months or more. Even when the new hospital opens there will need to be a transition period of around 6 months with both hospitals open. So we're still looking at the ORAH being open for at least another 18 months. No need to get carried away with fancy plans at this stage.

6 months of transition? According to who? What's your source?

12 months ago people complained that nothing has been planned for the site. Now people complain that something has been planned 'too soon' or 'too far in advance'? Really?

I agree. That is the best proposal I've seen to date.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[SRW]

That's ridiculous. Government isn't a zero sum game, where all energy is directed to one thing at a time. More importantly, the lead-in time for a project like the ORAH redevelopment is significant, such that if plans aren't finalised soon we'll be left with a site that is dormant and economically damaging to the East End.

Mate, sounds like the NRAH won't be open for another 12 months or more. Even when the new hospital opens there will need to be a transition period of around 6 months with both hospitals open. So we're still looking at the ORAH being open for at least another 18 months. No need to get carried away with fancy plans at this stage.

Departing from your flowery language, there's absolutely a need to plan now.

A site as crucial as this needs to be shovel-ready as soon as it's vacant. Again, the time taken to bring a project to that point is significant. Despite your pessimism regarding the NRAH timeline, if anything, the redevelopment planning is behind schedule. Consider a comparatively minor project like the East Tce tram extension, for which there were already foundation studies, will still take nearly a year from announcement to begin construction. The ORAH redevelopment, many magnitudes larger, still hasn't a firm idea of what it should be let alone a definable proposal.

[ghs]

6 months of transition? According to who? What's your source?

Once NRAH opens, there's going to be a few hundred patients at the ORAH, most of them with significant health problems and many of them won't be mobile. The process of transferring them to the NRAH will need to be done carefully and slowly.

What would your plan be to transition them to NRAH ?

By the time NRAH opens, the tramline extension along north terrace will probably be finished. Do you think it would be ok to just put them on the tram and tell them to get off at city west ?

[Norman]

6 months of transition? According to who? What's your source?

Once NRAH opens, there's going to be a few hundred patients at the ORAH, most of them with significant health problems and many of them won't be mobile. The process of transferring them to the NRAH will need to be done carefully and slowly.

What would your plan be to transition them to NRAH ?

By the time NRAH opens, the tramline extension along north terrace will probably be finished. Do you think it would be ok to just put them on the tram and tell them to get off at city west ?

I don't know how long it will take. I don't work in the healthcare sector. I've heard from John Hanlon that "hospitals are quick to transition once the new facility is open". That's why I asked you if you have a source for your timeline, because even though he works for the government I would trust his word above yours.

The tram comment is absolutely unnecessary. Hospitalised patients get transferred between hospitals by ambulance all the time.

[ghs]

6 months of transition? According to who? What's your source?

Once NRAH opens, there's going to be a few hundred patients at the ORAH, most of them with significant health problems and many of them won't be mobile. The process of transferring them to the NRAH will need to be done carefully and slowly.

What would your plan be to transition them to NRAH ?

By the time NRAH opens, the tramline extension along north terrace will probably be finished. Do you think it would be ok to just put them on the tram and tell them to get off at city west ?

I don't know how long it will take. I don't work in the healthcare sector. I've heard from John Hanlon that "hospitals are quick to transition once the new facility is open". That's why I asked you if you have a source for your timeline, because even though he works for the government I would trust his word above yours.

The tram comment is absolutely unnecessary. Hospitalised patients get transferred between hospitals by ambulance all the time.

The tram comment was a joke.

[Nort]

Hey you, yeah you, the urban planners, transport engineers, and arts patrons making long term plans. Yeah you, drop that and come over here with a paint roller hey, the new hospital site needs some work.