[COM] Festival Plaza Tower 1 | 115m | 27 Levels | Office

[gnrc_louis]

Major developers Walker and Charter Hall battle for Services Australia anchor
Paul Starick, Chief Reporter, The Advertiser
September 30, 2020 5:31pm
Subscriber only

Two of Australia’s biggest developers are battling for a major government tenant to kickstart their competing Adelaide office tower projects worth hundreds of million of dollars.

Walker Corp’s Festival Square and Charter Hall’s proposed Southern Cross Arcade complex are vying for Services Australia, the federal agency that delivers Medicare, Centrelink and child support payments and services.

The major tenant would become an anchor tenant for either project, taking 29,000 square metres of office space and kickstarting construction.

The $600 million Festival Square development, part of the wider Festival Plaza transformation, includes a 27-storey office tower and three-level premium retail/entertainment precinct between the Adelaide Casino and Parliament House.

Charter Hall’s plan for a 15-storey King William St tower involves razing Southern Cross Arcade and the adjacent Sands and McDougall building – the latter opposed by Adelaide City Council because it is provisionally listed as a State Heritage Place.

Both firms did not comment directly on the tussle for a major tenant a Walker Corp spokesman said talks were “focused around the unequalled quality of the Festival Square commercial product”.

Infrastructure Minister Corey Wingard on Wednesday said the revamped Station Rd, also between the Casino and Parliament House, would reopen within weeks and repeatedly stressed the State Government’s desire to complete the Walker office tower and associated complex.

“We’re really keen to work with the Walker Corporation. Of course, they have got another construct here with a big office tower, and we want to work with them and get that delivered as quickly as possible,” Mr Wingard said.

“One, so we can get the project completed but, two, so that we can complete the plaza realm that goes around it for the good of all South Australians.”

Asked if the government had set a timeline on completing talks with Walker Corp, Mr Wingard blamed contractual and other “constraints that were put in place” by the previous Labor government for frustration over the project dragging on since 2012.

Walker Corp is building a 1560-space, five storey underground carpark, set to be finished by mid-2021, but the office tower has been on the drawing board since 2012.

In a potential end to eight years of wrangling over the prime Riverbank site, the government in April added $31 million to its previous $222.35 million budget to overhaul the public square, between the Casino, parliament and Adelaide Festival Centre.

Mr Wingard said Station Rd would reopen within weeks, coinciding with the expected November completion of SkyCity’s $330 million Casino expansion.

“This redevelopment is set to become Adelaide’s premier events and open public space in the heart of the Riverbank precinct,” Minister Wingard said.

[Waewick]

Hopefully whichever one wins, it's on architectural merit, not government interference

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[SRW]

Hopefully whichever one wins, it's on architectural merit, not government interference

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

It's a government contract, so I don't know how you'd limit 'interference'. And I'm not sure architectural merit is a leading concern for Services Australia.

For my own, I'd rather see Charter Hall's project get up (with heritage building retained) as I both dislike Walker's oversized proposal and think that the Southern Cross rebuild would better benefit the city.

[Waewick]

Hopefully whichever one wins, it's on architectural merit, not government interference

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

It's a government contract, so I don't know how you'd limit 'interference'. And I'm not sure architectural merit is a leading concern for Services Australia.

For my own, I'd rather see Charter Hall's project get up (with heritage building retained) as I both dislike Walker's oversized proposal and think that the Southern Cross rebuild would better benefit the city.

So we have a federal agency looking for floor space between competing interests with one providing a State Government an opportunity to 'finish' a project.

Said state government is also the same colour as Federal Government.

Do I need to spell it out even more for you?

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[SRW]

Hopefully whichever one wins, it's on architectural merit, not government interference

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

It's a government contract, so I don't know how you'd limit 'interference'. And I'm not sure architectural merit is a leading concern for Services Australia.

For my own, I'd rather see Charter Hall's project get up (with heritage building retained) as I both dislike Walker's oversized proposal and think that the Southern Cross rebuild would better benefit the city.

So we have a federal agency looking for floor space between competing interests with one providing a State Government an opportunity to 'finish' a project.

Said state government is also the same colour as Federal Government.

Do I need to spell it out even more for you?

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If you reread my post, you'll see this was entirely an exercise for yourself. I've no illusions about the probity standards of this government.

[AndyWelsh]

From today:








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[Norman]

Another variation has been lodged with SCAP, making a few small material changes and removing the courtyard between Parliament House and the retail component, instead creating a back lane between the two buildings.

First, the new renders
















Now, the Before and After

Before


After


Before


After






Before


After


Before


After






Before


After


After

[Patrick_27]

More plane trees?! Are they not capable of planting anything else? They've literally removed proposed jacarandas in favour of more plane trees.

And so begins the dumbing down and cost saving of this project, an already bland office tower and retail building is set to become even more bland. And how do they expect to find nine hospitality tenants to service the spaces made available?

There is nothing new or exciting about this proposal, it's been done before so many times elsewhere.

[citywatcher]

It will certainly end up a b grade cafe area and the tower will probably never happen

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[Nathan]

"Dear architects, we appreciate the efforts you put in to give us a nondescript tower, but we feel the louvres are adding too much interest. Can you please just make it a glass box? Ta."

[Pikey]

I'm probably going against the grain here, but I quite like the revision. If the materials are of high quality, with the facade having low transparency, I actually reckon it could look quite striking. The view of the northern facing skyline will be massively more modern, with this tower all but blocking out Westpac.

just my two bobs.

[Algernon]

"Dear architects, we appreciate the efforts you put in to give us a nondescript tower, but we feel the louvres are adding too much interest. Can you please just make it a glass box? Ta."

Nailed it.

[how good is he]

I have this feeling that no matter how many glossy renders they put out, this whole re-development will end up looking nothing like the images portrayed.

[AndyWelsh]

Thanks for this update Norman, particularly all the before and afters. So interesting to see these changes side by side.


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[SRW]

Thanks for the update Norman. Do you have a link to the file?

As for the changes, I'll concede the appearance of the ground level interface of both the tower and retail space is marginally better, but I resent that they've done this by stealing not just more public space but landscaped public space. You'll remember that the revised plaza plans also reduced grassed and planted areas, so these changes add weight to the fear the area will be a concrete paradise with no relief from sun and wind and few pleasant places to actually gather (not unlike the old plaza).

The tower goes from bad to worse. At least the old design made a more coherent attempt at breaking up the massing into discrete tower forms. This is giving me flashbacks to the disjointed mess of the City Central buildings. Hell, maybe they should just tack on a couple 'pods'.