[COM] 104-106 Currie Street | 117m | 33lvl | Sofitel Hotel

[Will]

P.S. why does the media keep repeating that this will be the first 5 star hotel built in Adelaide in 30 years? Have they forgotten about the Crowne Plaza, which opened in 2010? Even then, the Playford on North Terrace was only opened in late 1998.

[Nathan]

I believe AFL is the mob behind FSHN BNKR and it's associated labels (with the flagship store on the corner of Rundle Mall and Pulteney St).

[PeFe]

This is seriously good news, a new 32 storey hotel for the Adelaide CBD, that is really significant, as in Adelaide "turning a corner" significant.
Along with Vue on King William this represents the potential "new" Adelaide.
Goodbye to the "old" Adelaide of perennial "closures and doom and gloom"
Hello new Adelaide !

[Dvious]

Image 2015 Adelaide if the Lib's had been voted to power, it would have been a completely different story in my opinion, and that's coming from a fence sitter.

Jay has done some great things for Adelaide and especially for our CBD that has been neglected for 30 years. Yeah, we are in great debt, but hey, you need to spend money to make money. I doubt VUE, BOHEM, SAMHRI, 115KWS, Sofitel and numerous other projects would have come to fruition.

[rev]

All that aside though, a few developments does not fix our economic situation. Our economy is basically up the shi****, and it's going to get worse when Holdens and dozens of component and parts suppliers shut down as well over the next two and a half years.

Just because there's a few buildings going up in the City, doesn't mean everything is peachy and rosy.


But, having said that, with all the media attention and the people from Accor speaking in front of the cameras, I think we should have high hopes of this 100m+ tower getting off the ground as opposed to all the other false hopes we had with previous proposals.

[ghs]

Rev, it's more then just a few buildings going up in the city. Over the next 3 years we're looking
at 10 - 15 buildings of at least 55m in height. This represents about $1.5 billion dollars of
investment.

[mshagg]

All that aside though, a few developments does not fix our economic situation. Our economy is basically up the shi****, and it's going to get worse when Holdens and dozens of component and parts suppliers shut down as well over the next two and a half years.

Just because there's a few buildings going up in the City, doesn't mean everything is peachy and rosy.

Surely a 30+ floor hotel is a good sign for transitioning away from government protected manufacturing industries? These buildings are much more important than just their impact on the skyline.

Like it or not we're going to skew further towards a service-based economy and having attractive destinations in the city (read: not completely hitching our wagon to regional attractions) like hotels, sporting venues and convention centres are important to support that. Plus you'd hope a decent chunk of the money being spent to build these things enters circulation.

Change is gradual, challenging and can be painful for many, but spending too much time lamenting the loss of old-world industries is akin to only constructing 18 floor buildings because "thats what we've always done".

[Honey of a City]

All that aside though, a few developments does not fix our economic situation. Our economy is basically up the shi****, and it's going to get worse when Holdens and dozens of component and parts suppliers shut down as well over the next two and a half years.

Just because there's a few buildings going up in the City, doesn't mean everything is peachy and rosy.


But, having said that, with all the media attention and the people from Accor speaking in front of the cameras, I think we should have high hopes of this 100m+ tower getting off the ground as opposed to all the other false hopes we had with previous proposals.

Seems the developers have plenty of confidence in Adelaide's future. Pity more Adelaideans can't see it.

[Alyx]

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/ ... 7313338546

[[Shuz]]

STFU Sandy. Typical negative conservative Adelaide whinging at its best.

[phenom]

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/ ... 7313338546

Thanks for posting this Alyx

My response to Sandy's 'e-note'... Huh? 80 apartments is more than half of Adelaide's annual apartment demand? Based on what? I'm sure this comes as a surprise to the developers of Vue who sold ~200 apartments in what, about 6 months... even as about a dozen other apartment complexes were also approved and/or have had construction started.

Historic character? That entire area is full of run-down old buildings, car parks and buildings that have no charm whatsoever.

And what is it with people being so concerned with whether these investments are economically viable? The project proponents are the ones organising it and assuming it's not an exercise in upping land value to sell it on, the risk is on them and whoever financially backs it. It's really no skin off any of our noses if they fail... I believe it's called a market. If they are right, they make money and if not they lose money.

I really don't think Sandy is concerned that a developer might be overcommitting themselves... geez...

edit: This shibboleth about being a European city... again, there are very few major cities in Europe where they don't have 'tall buildings'. It's just a myth unless he means very specific (and small) historic cities. Certainly not Paris or London though. And honestly, 110m is not 'try hard'... it's significantly less than the near 30 year old Westpac House.

[Wayno]

To quote the recently deceased Terry Pratchett: “It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.” Yes thinking of you Clr Wilkinson. lol...

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-a ... 7313475767

Can Adelaide sustain this hotel building boom?

ANOTHER day, another announcement of a new hotel.

News that Sofitel plans to open a luxury five-star hotel in Currie St is undoubtedly good news — Sofitel is a top shelf brand and its $140 million project with 250 rooms will create jobs, churn the economy and give Adelaide to sort of added style that designer brands such as Tiffany’s are delivering to our boutique city.

However, it does seem that there have been a lot of hotel developments recently, which prompts the question of whether it is sustainable.

The short answer is yes. These operators do not invest millions without doing their homework to ensure the long term demand is there to fill their rooms.

That demand has been on an upward curve for a long time and is still growing.

The number of hotel rooms has grown by more than 25 per cent since 2010 to now top 8000.

In recent months we have seen grand openings of:
• Ibis with 311 rooms;
• The Mayfair with 170 rooms;
• The Watson at Walkerville with 24 rooms;
• Quest on Franklin with 117 serviced apartments;
• Quest King William South with 100 serviced apartments.

These have joined relatively recent developments such as the Crowne Plaza and the various well-established hotels such as the Hilton Adelaide and Hotel Grand Chancellor, as well as the North Terrace hotels such as the Mercure, Oaks Embassy and the InterContinental.

You might think we are nearing saturation point, yet hotel occupancy rates were up 6.6 per cent in June compared with the previous year.

Overall occupancy rates were 80 per cent last year while revenue per room grew by 5.5 per cent.

Several factors are at play.

The events of Mad March bring a big crowd from interstate, and they are seeing a vibrant new Adelaide with a robust food scene and plethora of interesting small bars popping up in the city — and they are telling their friends.

The $350 million expansion of the Adelaide Convention Centre is helping capture more, bigger events that bring thousands of visitors in for conferences — most linger a bit longer before or after the event to see the sights.

But the ace in the hand in the Riverbank redevelopment with the upgraded Adelaide Oval as centrepiece. This has injected enormous new life into the city, as those who live here know.

Crowds flocking to the cricket have filled hotels to capacity, while the Rolling Stones concert saw a ‘full house’ sign at the InterContinental.

As for the football, we now have crowds flocking over from interstate and instead of going from the airport to Football Park then back to the airport, they are staying a full weekend wandering from Adelaide Oval to the restaurants, bars and night-life of the city.

Just like South Australians do when they go to Melbourne for the football.

This is a huge growth area as word spreads and corporates as well as families get the message about spending a weekend in ‘Radelaide’.

There is also the growing health and medical precinct in the area, with the new RAH, SAHMRI and more attracting their own clientele who need to a roof over their head when visiting.

Plenty of such folk are well heeled and want the class of accommodation a Sofitel can provide.

The smart hotel operators have listened to the market and responded to demand.

[ghs]

Clr Sandy Wilkinson says that Adelaide has only limited demand for apartments. What ???

If that's the case then why is there about 20 apartment buildings currently proposed for the city ?

[crawf]

Its people like Sandy why the ACC lost control of CBD developments and are seen as NIMBYs.

If they still had power, I'm sure more than half of the current projects would have been rejected.

Go back to your rock Sandy.

[Will]

Thankfully, these days, Councillor Wilkinson's opinion is just as relevant as Harold and Beryl down the road.

I shudder to think how our city would look is the state government had not introduced all its initiatives.