Sensational-Adelaide.com

Wilfy 2007 wrote:Good morning,

Shuz wrote:RIght back at you,

You'd be better off actually submitting your thoughts to the Premier's office than around here. We don't do much other than to read it and move on.

Prince George wrote:Hiya Spike,

The Queen and I are from Adelaide, we moved over here for a while just because the time seemed right to see a different part of the world.

Gawler is the sort of place that's vulnerable when growth happens. For a long time it was probably just a bit too far from Adelaide for it to be attractive as an option for people to work in town and commute from Gawler. Now that's changed, maybe people are just more comfortable with the idea of driving all that way everyday. Then people from the city see these areas that have cheaper land and offer an attractive country town and decide that this is the place that they can go to build a house bigger than the one they could afford in town. The areas are still cheap when you compare them to Unley, but not cheap compared to Gawler twenty years ago. Worse still, it could start to become "bedroom communities" - the places that people "live" in only at night, and empty out by day when they go to work. The Queen feels like this is alarmingly like Australia sneaking it's way closer to America's style of development that has produced too many lifeless cities surrounded by enormous suburbs (that end up using valuable agricultural and natural areas); she totally agrees with you about sprawl being a disaster (I'm the Royal Typist tonight )

This is the reason that I'm not interested in seeing high-speed rail connecting Adelaide to the Barossa, Murray Bridge, or Victor Harbor. That just makes them targets for this same pattern.

But housing affordability is a real problem, and it's very hard to address it through development. A developer is a business, they want to maximise their profits. It's far easier to do that by selling to the top-end of the market than by selling to the affordable end. It takes a long time for this to lower prices; basically it takes waiting for the new stuff to age enough to become affordable.

The situation in America is different for a few reasons:

• America's economy is underpinned by inexpensive Hispanic labour, especially in the building and farming trades. That is their ugly little secret.
• Tract development (where a developer buys a big parcel of land and then builds the same house over and over) is cheap, but makes for boring areas.

And don't forget that the average wages in the States is lower than you'd expect (it always surpises me, anyway), so housing isn't as affordable here as you might think by just comparing house prices. Especially when you factor in the burden that owning and running multiple cars puts on families in these areas.

All in all, I don't like hearing anybody saying that Australia should be as "productive" as America's housing market. If you acheive that at the expense of uninsured labourers getting below minimum wage to build ghastly nightmares, they can keep it. What's the alternative for affordability? I wish I had an answer for that problem, I'm still looking for it

Daycorp Phoeniz rises in Gawler

Developer DayCorp says its $30 million dollar retail and commercial hub at Gawler only reflects SA’s prosperity, with the regional centre’s population predicted to increase by 30% during the next decade.

A trade area analysis report commissioned by DayCorp projects population in the Gawler Council area will grow from the present 19,000 to 27,283 by 2021. The 6508 square metre shopping centre, Phoenix Plaza, will incorporate the historic former Phoenix Foundry building at Gawler.

DayCorp Director Travis Day reports “a high level of interest” in the new centre both locally and interstate with Target putting its hand up as anchor tenant.

“As SA’s economic growth continues to strengthen in the northern areas of Adelaide, quality shopping centres with quality tenants are needed,” Travis says. “For such a high profile brand as Target to commit to this development is an excellent indication of the interest in and continuing growth and success of the region.

“This development has been well researched and considered to ensure it meets the needs of the local population as well preserving a historical building which is part of Gawler’s history.”

Phoenix Plaza will feature:

•Target as the anchor tenant

•19 specialty shops

•The heritage Phoenix Foundry building will be refurbished and become commercial office suites

•A decked car park of 292 car parking spaces houses an undercover loading dock servicing...

In collaboration with GHD, Connell Wagner, Rider Levett Bucknall and Currie Brown, Woodhead formed the Edinburgh Design Team to undertake the role of masterplanning, architecture, heritage, interior design and graphic design for the relocation of elements of 1st Brigade from Darwin to Adelaide as part of the Hardened and Networked Army initiative by the Australian Defence Force.

As the largest design contract ever let by Defence, the project will see the redeveolpment of a large part of the RAAF Base at Edinburgh, South Australia, for the new army base to include working accommodation, training facilities, messing and base infrastructure. The project, worth $623m, will create a generational change in facilities for Army as part of the adaptation for demanding future operational environments.

The project includes over 40 new buildings, designed to reflect the traditional values of the Edinburgh site, and also to create a new standard of amenity for personnel in achieving a sustainable working environment compatible with civilian standards. The ESD attributes of the project include investment in water and energy saving elements which will see the site become a flagship for Defence and a model benchmark for large scale developments throughout the country.

mattblack wrote:What does the green represent on these renders?

Will wrote:

mattblack wrote:What does the green represent on these renders?

It looks like grass.

Somebody wrote:C'mon Wilfy, we can do better than a park-n-ride.

Developers should be made to pay for proper infrastructure if they want these developments, not lumping it on the taxpayer which will see things postponed for years. Delfin Lend Lease ought to fund a proper PT link to it, which can start with running the electrified Gawler Line service into the estate. Mawson Lakes has been somewhat of a success in this regard.

The station should open on the day the first bunches of houses open, not five years after the estate is settled as happens in my state.