Re: Affordable housing in the city
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:52 pm
It'd want to look a lot better than it does in the photos. It looks like they've jammed a tin farming implement shed on top of the building. 
From the Messenger:
Life for city laneways
Business23 Dec 10 @ 07:00am
CHANGES: The Historian Hotel staff, Tarquin Brown, Lisa Pash, Felicity Brown and Sophie Priede. Pic: Luke Hemer
Two sleepy city laneways will soon be revamped and opened for alfresco dining - the first step in a bold new plan by Adelaide City Council to breathe life into our city’s nooks.
The council is working on designs to block car access and upgrade Chesser St and Coromandel Place, between Pirie St and Grenfell St - with official plans expected to be released in early 2011 and more lanes to be revamped down the track.
However, the City Messenger has obtained a copy of an expression of interest flyer by real estate group Jones Lang Lasalle which shows 12 cafes and restaurants lining the eastern side of Chesser St near the Grenfell St entrance.
The road is paved and has space for tables and chairs, while each shop is labelled with a different cuisine from Greek and Japanese to a juice bar, tea house and creperie.
The flyer markets the upgrade to potential restaurateurs as ``Adelaide’s newest and most sophisticated dining precinct Chesser Lane.’‘
However, senior leasing executive Lukas Weeks said the concept was marketed 6-8 months ago and found to be ``economically unviable’’ but that he was looking at alternatives for the street.
Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood said the project was in its early stages but described it as an ``exciting initial foray’’ into the council’s wider plan to ``breathe life into the city’s laneways’‘.
Lord Mayor Yarwood said the plans would aim to ``pedestrianise’’ the two laneways, boosting foot traffic by either banning or restricting car access.
``Chesser St and Coromandel Place are not exactly areas that are used for through traffic so it is really about closing the street to cars either all the time or at certain times, and
then we can increase the number of people who use these spaces, for example, by encouraging outdoor dining,’’ he said.
``Less cars could mean many more people.’’
He would not provide costings for the project, but said it would likely be done in stages.
Historian Hotel manager Felicity Brown said staff were excited about outdoor diningon Coromandel Place.
``To have a few nice umbrellas, tables and chairs and the road done up nicely will be a dream,’’ Ms Brown said.
``People say `can we sit outside’ and we don’t have that option.’‘
Adelaide restaurateur Primo Caon, owner of The Chesser Cellar, said the upgrade could triple his turnover by encouraging diners to linger with a drink outside.
``It’s going to give Adelaide a nice touch of Europe, and for me to be sipping champagne or coffee or having a bite to eat under the vines in Chesser St is the best thing that could
happen in the state,’’ Mr Caon said.
Mr Caon had in April decided to sell his restaurant and bar, which he has run since 1990, but took it off the market after hearing of the plans (see separate story).
Hotel owner Amber Lake, who also has two warehouses alongside her Coromandel Place pub, said she hoped safety would be improved by widening narrow footpaths for wheelchair and pedestrian access and restricting trucks.
Cars can currently access Coromandel Pl from the Pirie St end, and exit via Chesser St by French St, which connects the two.
Property Council of SA executive director Nathan Paine said the council needed to ensure the upgrade was of a high quality and that incentives were in place to encourage new eateries to set up shop, such as a `honeymoon period’ with no permit costs for outdoor dining.
The Property Council called for a laneway upgrade program, modelled on a Melbourne city initiative, in its Adelaide 2036 report released last year
at another temporary carpark
