News & Developments: Tonsley

[Will409]

Given that a couple of the former sidings that served the Mitsubishi/Chrysler site are still in place and the Adelaide metropolitan system will be converted to standard gauge in a few years time, it is still possible to have rail access.

[Norman]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the sale of the Tonsley Site is still ongoing. I believe they want $35m for it I think.

I was at the Budget Committee Hearing today and heard that the site will NOT be used for residential purposes, but will remain an industrial site. The government is hoping that another industry will move in there. This is because there are apparently not enough industrial sites of this size in Metropolitan Adelaide.

In addition, the government is looking into forming another joint venture with another bidder to purchase the land and develop something of an industrial nature on it.

[Cruise]

This is because there are apparently not enough industrial sites of this size in Metropolitan Adelaide.

especially down south

[omada]

Sorry COMPLETELY unrelated, but I have just noticed that Cruise is banned... can someone tell me what happened?

[Howie]

Breached forum rules... being disrespectful to fellow members. Had given him chances, we removed some of his more offensive posts and said nothing of it, then he kept firing up so we removed him from the site.

[fabricator]

I wouldn't call Tonsley down south, its plainly obvious most of the workers are going to live a lot further south than the factory itself.

It took a very long time to get the old engine plant at Lonsdale full or various companies, so any ideas on if they plan to go for one big company, or several small ones ?

[Aidan]

I wouldn't call Tonsley down south, its plainly obvious most of the workers are going to live a lot further south than the factory itself.

Maybe call it up south then? The point is that there are a lot more employers in the northern suburbs than in the southern suburbs.

It took a very long time to get the old engine plant at Lonsdale full or various companies, so any ideas on if they plan to go for one big company, or several small ones ?

It would almost certainly be lots of small ones. Attracting a big company to SA would be difficult enough as it is, but attracting it to the southern suburbs would be harder still - firstly there are no significant economies of agglomeration, and secondly the transport links are inferior to the northern suburbs.

I've been reading a document about Melbourne's future transport needs. It raises so many issues that it probably deserves its own thread on how it can be applied to Adelaide - but one thing that sticks out is the part about the needs of manufacturing industries. In many cases fabrication is no longer the high value part of the process. It is the knowledge based activities which are becoming more important, and as the document points out, knowledge-based services tend to cluster and organise themselves to be close to clients, collaborators and competitors.

What does this mean for the Tonsley site? It's very near Flinders, and that could become a big attraction for companies to locate there. But getting the process started could still be a problem.

[fabricator]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 773174.htm

The former Mitsubishi site in Adelaide's southern suburbs has been bought by the South Australian Government.

It has paid $32.5 million for the land and plans to develop it for new manufacturing and research industries.

A master plan for the area is to be released after the settlement in February.

Mitsubishi Motors will keep two hectares of the 64-hectare site for its head office and spart parts storage.

Mr Foley says the redevelopment eventually will give a jobs boost for Adelaide's southern suburbs.

"We want to be able to create as many jobs as possible in new, clean, green industries," he said.

The car maker closed its factory at Clovelly Park in March 2008 when it ended production of its 380 model, putting hundreds of workers out of jobs.

Time to change the thread title to #Sold

[rhino]

I heard Kevin Foley talking to Spence Denny about this on the radio this morning. Surprisingly, Kev kept a cool head, even when harrassed by MHS.

Mitsubishi have managed to hold on to their head office space for no rent. MHS says this ammounts to about $20million the Govt has missed out on, over time. Foley says (quite rightly, I believe) that it's going to take up to a decade to maximise the use on this 64-hectare site, and in the meantime, 260 people will be employed at Mitsi's head office there, bringing payroll tax into the state's coffers, and keeping employment going, which would be just as likely to move to Melbourne or Sydney if they were forced to pay rent at Tonsley.

Also, of the $32.5million that was paid for the site, $30million was what Mitsi's repaid to the Govt when they ceased operations (remember how the Govt gave them $30million to prop them up a couple of years ago? The deal was that if they stopped manufacturing in Adelaide, the money would be repaid).

[AtD]

From today's Crikey Daily Mail

Tips and rumours
You've got to hand it to Adelaide's political media (well not really, because that's how the state government runs them) with their coverage of Wednesday's sale of Mitsubishi's old assembly plant at Tonsley Park. According to the media release from state Treasurer Kevin Foley, the state has bought the site for $32 million and will turn it into a hi-tech dreamland for businesses that don't exist yet. This will create thousands of jobs, apparently.

But here's the truth; Mitsubishi was required as land owner to remediate the site and was also required under federal law to provide and store 10 years of spare parts for the cars they built there. Part of the state government purchase deal is free rent at the site for Mitsubishi's corporate headquarters and free rent for the storage of spare parts. Because they are still on the site (now as a lessee) and it is still zoned industrial, there are no clean-up costs.

The value of this bonus to Mitsubishi is $20 million. That value was not included in the purchase price announced by the Treasurer on Wednesday. If a company tried to hide such arrangements when declaring sale prices of commercial property, it would be prosecuted for evading stamp duty. So, why the secrecy? Why does Mitsubishi, who sacked several thousand workers a couple of years ago, get such a great deal from the state?

Wheels within wheels, my friends. And how is it that at a press conference to discuss this deal not one Adelaide journo asked about the value of the free rent and storage deal? Because all you have to do is "hand it to them".

[skyliner]

I wonder how all this links with the Tonley line electrification and possible Finders ext. proposal? Do they know something we don't?

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[fabricator]

Oh the irony, the state government have been using the site for storage themselves. Well it was a large number of concrete bridge beams for the South Road Tram Overpass.

Media Mike always did have a magnetic attraction to large blocks of land, Cheltenham, Clipsal. Maybe he only sells the developers the ones that start with a 'C'

[Port Adelaide Fan]

Super-TAFE planned for car site

A NEW "super-TAFE" campus is planned for the former Mitsubishi site at Tonsley Park.

The Sunday Mail has learnt of plans for the education and training complex on the 64ha manufacturing site the State Government bought for $32.5 million this month.

The campus would provide training in all building trades, but its establishment could bring the closure of up to three existing campuses at Panorama, Marleston and O'Halloran Hill.

The Panorama campus has been struggling, a lack of funding causing the relocation and cancellation of several courses in the past year.

The Sunday Mail also understands the Government has put in a bid for federal funding for the new campus and that it is hoping to have it approved for a February announcement ahead of the March 20 election.

TAFE SA managing director Stephen Conway said the Trade and Economic Development Department had been working to commission a master plan detailing the future development of the site, but would give no further details.

"The master plan will be given after the settlement of the sale in the new year," he said.

Government officials were tight-lipped on details for the super-TAFE when contacted during the week, maintaining that no decision had been made.

Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni warned the plans could lead to "mass closures" of other TAFE campuses.

"The Government needs to come clean on its plans for TAFE," he said.

"We caught the minister out in Parliament when he refused to confirm or deny the future of Panorama TAFE. We know now that it's earmarked for closure, but no decision will be made before the election."

Mr Pisoni said there was particular concern for regional TAFE campuses. "We're going to see a mass closure of TAFE (campuses) after the election," he said.

"This is more rationalisation, more centralisation of the system and we're obviously concerned about that. They're holding it off till after the election because there's going to be pain and it's going to be controversial."

Australian Education Union state president Correna Haythorpe said that, while extra funding was welcome, the closure of other campuses would be a "tragedy".

"It's not necessarily the answer, to build a super-TAFE," she said.

Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said education and training would benefit the region.

"It's a great advantage to the south of Adelaide which has, unfortunately, not been progressing as well as the north has been in recent times," he said.

When announcing the purchase of the site, Treasurer Kevin Foley said it would be a hub for companies in "advanced manufacturing, clean-tech and environmental industries", but he did not mention an education campus.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

[Wayno]

Co-locating TAFE with high tech industries (such as Advanced Manufacturing & Clean-Tech) appears to make good sense.

[BenJ]

This seems quite different from the previous plan of making the area a hub for new green industries though. There isn't really anything in that release that states that the new TAFE will incorporate "advanced manufacturing, clean-tech and environmental industries," only that it will "provide training in all building trades."

I think this is a bit of a cop out and I wonder if they're doing this because they would have access to "education revolution" funding from the federal government, something they wouldn't have got if they were to focus on manufacturing and industry etc.