[COM] West Franklin | 54m & 64m | 17 & 20 lvls | Apartments

[Jaymz]

Yep, and it's not all doom and gloom from the 0.6% growth rate I mentioned above..... that's for the whole of S.A. In actual fact, the population growth for the Adelaide CBD is and has been more than healthy for the past 10 years, at around 2% or more. Far above the national average

[EBG]

Some more brick work has been revealed facing Elizabeth Street (the side Street) on the west side.

[SBD]

When patchy brickwork appears on the facades of under-construction suburban houses, it i rendered and painted before handover to the owner. Is this intended to be kept bare as a patchy facade, will it be rendered, or is it nowhere near as patchy as it looks in that photo?

[SRW]

It's intended to be 'patchy' brickwork, of an industrial heritage aesthetic evoking the factory that once stood on this site. I like it.

[how good is he]

Anyone know if they used recycled red bricks of the era (ie early-mid 1900s) to look more authentic? Or if they salvaged & re-used the actual red bricks from the building there previously (Balfours etc).

[Waewick]

Tbh, I'm quietly worried that we'll see fewer apartments being built than we've enjoyed over the last couple years. This project in particular was lucky that Oaks committed for a large number of serviced apartments. But broadly, a lot of the favourable conditions that supported past projects have now evaporated: weaker foreign investment because of restrictions (increased fees since 16/17) here and in China); discontinuation of CBD stamp duty concession (thanks to SA Liberals); and, tighter mortgage lending by the banks. It seems pretty much all upcoming development is student, hotel or office. I can't think of any high-rise residential that is actually close or likely to take off - except maybe Penny Place because they've got access to private financing (Stokes)?

Yeah will be interesting to see what happens now that those things mentioned above have been wound back or removed. Basically it means the market will now decide, a good test to really see how the S.A economy is travelling. Our population growth is very weak at the moment (around 0.6%) and if the economy is gaining momentum as is being reported then population growth should hopefully improve.

For potential owner-occupiers (which appears to be the preferred model for housing by both major parties), buying apartments off-the-plan looks like a pretty uncertain and insecure model with little indication of if or when the buyer might be able to move in. The "developer" of a suburban housing estate appears to need to do a much smaller proportion of the total cost of a free-standing house than the developer needs to do for an inner-city apartment, which needs to have almost the entire development built before any of the buyers can move in.

If "we" want to encourage more inner-city high-rise owner-occupied apartments, maybe we need tax breaks directly to the developers, instead of tax incentives for the purchasers. Potential residents might be more prepared to by an apartment shell that only needs internal walls and furnishings, rather than a pipe dream that is is many stories above a current open-air car park, with no firm date for beginning construction, let alone handover.

resi land development and residential apartment developments are really two different beasts, but in general financiers require the same thing (the headline being about 80-100% debt coverage).

Where land development have it easier is that a large portion of their initial stock will be bought by builders looking to construct show houses or house and land packages under their own banner, this helps them get stage 1 away which also includes a large portion of the upfront cost, being the initial infrastructure upgrades.

It also helps that people can buy a block of land vacant, because they want to live their, then go find their own builder.

That is where apartment sales are more difficult as the developer doesn't have other builders taking a risk on their development.

That is also why 100% debt coverage still might not get you finance with an apartment block, because a financier may not believe the unsold allotments will see in the market (you may have sold all of your 1 bedroom apartments but none of your 3 bedrooms)

What people may not also realise is the moment the project is finished and sales commence, the developer is up for the land tax,rates and all the other costs involved in holding land and or apartments in the city. Big expense of say 150 unsold apartments or land allotments.

If we want more apartments we should work with council and state government to stop applying these expenses to the apartments until they are sold (or used for income purposes by the devloper, say for 12 months).

(We should also remeber that in the 90s people did lose money on land developments).

[Dvious]

Anyone know if they used recycled red bricks of the era (ie early-mid 1900s) to look more authentic? Or if they salvaged & re-used the actual red bricks from the building there previously (Balfours etc).

I highly doubt they would be recycled bricks. Purchasing recycled bricks are quite pricey $2-3 per brick. There is quite a bit of labour that goes in to cleaning up old bricks which adds to their price.

I know some companies make recycled looking bricks, which i think these would be. Which might be more like $1.50 a brick. They are used on some of the projects at Bowden.

[Smithy85]

Would prefer not to say how I know, but the next stage of this project/site looks like it will be on the Franklin Street side as opposed to the North of the taller West Franklin tower.

Very early stages, but concept image shows approx 6 storey resi along Franklin Street, and then on the corner of Franklin/Morphett, retaining the brick facade (above current sales centre), would be ground floor retail/cafe, first floor commercial and then a 13 storey/52m resi tower.

[SRW]

Would prefer not to say how I know, but the next stage of this project/site looks like it will be on the Franklin Street side as opposed to the North of the taller West Franklin tower.

Very early stages, but concept image shows approx 6 storey resi along Franklin Street, and then on the corner of Franklin/Morphett, retaining the brick facade (above current sales centre), would be ground floor retail/cafe, first floor commercial and then a 13 storey/52m resi tower.

IIRC the marketing language for stage 1 envisaged supermarket retail in stage 2. Do you know if that's still the case?

[Norman]

Would prefer not to say how I know, but the next stage of this project/site looks like it will be on the Franklin Street side as opposed to the North of the taller West Franklin tower.

Very early stages, but concept image shows approx 6 storey resi along Franklin Street, and then on the corner of Franklin/Morphett, retaining the brick facade (above current sales centre), would be ground floor retail/cafe, first floor commercial and then a 13 storey/52m resi tower.

IIRC the marketing language for stage 1 envisaged supermarket retail in stage 2. Do you know if that's still the case?

No, the supermarket was supposed to be part of stage 1, but Woolworths decided to pull out of the agreement. Not sure if this was then changed.

[EBG]

To the casual passer by you see old crappy bricks, but up close you can appreciate some one has gone to a lot of trouble to create that effect. Picture from Elizabeth St 3/12//2018.

[Ben]

Look like this will be finished on schedule. People should be moving in around start of Fringe time.

[Prodical]

this is finishing off well - the bricks look to be a nice touch

[Prodical]

I like this one - the eastern side especially has quite some architectural merit. Will be good when cafes and shops are open, will bring more people and life to this area + it's v close to market

[shiftaling]

The recycled brick look is one recent architectural trend I can really get on board with - I think they look great from the street level and really give a "human-scale" touch to buildings that could have otherwise been monolithic and alienating.