$20m cinema key to unlocking Prospect economy
A $20 million, 14-screen cinema development is being touted as the catalyst for an upgrade of one of Adelaide’s most driven thoroughfares.
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A $20 million, 14-screen cinema development is being touted as the catalyst for an upgrade of one of Adelaide’s most driven thoroughfares.
The Village Heart, a strip of Prospect Rd running south of the town hall and boasting the cafe and cultural heart of Prospect, is embracing new businesses through recent successful auction sales and is set to welcome a night-time economy when the new Palace Nova cinema, replete with cafes and shops, is completed next year.
“More people are moving to inner city areas like Prospect and Bowden, Kent Town and Mile End,” said cinema developer Steve Maras.
“We have a different profile of resident living there, that’s interesting developers. There are Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants on Prospect Rd that wouldn’t have opened five or 10 years ago. They’re catering to the needs of the younger generations.”
City of Prospect mayor, David O’Loughlin, said the loosening of height restrictions — at four storeys high the cinema will be the tallest building in Prospect — will have a significant impact on available space and activity along the main road.
“We hope it will help change thinking around this scale and bring other developers along,” he said.
The moment is nigh to extend the small bar licence to the suburbs Mr O’Loughlin believes.
“It’s time to move on.”
The rise of Prospect
BETWEEN 2008 and September 2014 there was not a single property sale along the commercial strip on Prospect Rd that has become known as the Village Heart.
Just over 4km to the Adelaide CBD, the stretch has long been used as a thoroughfare from Adelaide to the north and the countryside beyond. A Norwood Parade or Jetty Road in Glenelg it is not but change is afoot, Prospect Mayor David O’Loughlin said.
“The most commonly asked question of me, is when will we have a pub?” he said.
A benign inquiry on the face of things but it says much of the transformation of Prospect Rd, and the work ahead.
“The reason there is no pub in our Village Heart is that the Methodist church, which was very strong in the early 20th century, was against it so it didn’t happen,” Mr O’Loughlin said. “Now we have 15 licensed premises there.”
The answer to the pub question is simple, he said. “As soon as the government extends the small bar licence to the suburbs. It’s time to move on.”
The demographics and dynamics of Prospect, 13,000 souls strong, are however moving at a faster pace than state government bureaucracy.
“The amount of families with young children has increased significantly over the last decade. We have one of the youngest profiles for a council in the state, 36 years – lower than the national average. The new profile is evident in the schools which are chock-a-block,” Mr O’Loughlin said.
It’s a demographic that translates to the commercial as Adelaide developer Steve Maras, who played a lead role in the transformation of Rundle St two decades ago, testifies.
“More people are moving to inner-city areas like Prospect and Bowden, Kent Town and Mile End,” Mr Maras said. “We have a different profile of resident living there, that’s interesting developers. There are Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants on Prospect Rd that wouldn’t have opened five or 10 years ago. They’re catering to the needs of the younger generations.”
The upgrade of Prospect Rd and nearby Churchill Rd has been fundamental.
“We wanted to transform the Village Heart to make it a place people wanted to come to, to bring cafes and coffee shops,” said Mr O’Loughlin.
“Churchill Rd is the most significant corridor development zone in the state. The intention was to stop demolition of lovely old homes and creating maisonettes, and move to greater density on the main roads and have more of a visual impact.”
A perusal of the three Prospect Rd commercial property sales this year – a significant volume given the previous barren spell which Mr Maras suggests was due to owners holding on for better things – shows price increases of close to 50 per cent in the past two years. The sale of 113 Prospect Rd, leased to Bank SA until October 2018, to a private developer for $1.717 million at $2054 a square metre is the most recent gauge.
The buyer will simply sit on the site and monitor the uplift, said CBRE’s Ben Heritage, who led the frenzied auction.
Much will change though in 12 months’ time when a night-time economy comes into view. The catalyst will be a 14-screen, art deco-themed cinema, operated by Palace Nova Cinemas, to open in the Village Heart, Mr O’Loughlin said.
The Maras Group, behind the East End Nova Cinemas in Rundle St, bought a row of old shops and factories eight years ago to build the Prospect Rd cinema – although the issue of height delayed construction earlier this year.
The state government’s 30-year plan has allowed for increased scale, enabling the Maras Group to build to four storeys instead of two under the previous planning regimen. The $20 million development is expected to generate more than 300 jobs during and after construction.
The ground floor will be given over to retail, with shops, cafes and restaurants on the ground floor. There will be 1100sq m of A-grade office space on the top floor and undercover parking for 54 vehicles plus bikes and motorcycles.
“Early on, we experienced various planning issues and realised that without a relaxing of the building height restrictions that prevailed at the time, the project would not go ahead,” said Steve Maras.
“This will have a huge impact on the amount of available space and activity along the main road,” Mr O’Loughlin said.
“It’s the tallest building aside from St Cuthbert’s Church. We hope it will help change thinking around this scale and bring other developers along.
“New ownership brings change and opportunity.”
The cinema construction is having an effect on the surrounding area already, Mr Heritage believes.
“Once retail is in, that whole strip will have completely come alive,” he said.
“The night-time economy will change, it’s daytime right now, the cinema will take it through to midnight.”
The largest opportunity to come on to the Village Heart market in several years, a mixed-use development, will come up within the next month or so, CBRE colleague Will Brown said.
Public realm upgrades have been fundamental in attracting new cafes and businesses, said Steve Maras, the impact of the village heart lending itself to an apartment boom on Churchill Rd.
“It gives people a short walk to Prospect Rd. Two and a half years ago, there would be one family living in a single storey house, now there are two people in 25 apartments with an 18-30 demographic. The population is growing with the vertical impact.”
Turning single- storey homes into multiple apartments has brought with it some angst, however, nearly 77 per cent of homes in Prospect are still separate houses, with 71 per cent of its population born in Australia.
The impact will ripple beyond Prospect Rd.
The economics are basic and impacting already, house prices up 4.8 per cent in the past three months, units stronger again at 7.3 per cent.
“The more desirable the Village Heart, the more people want the move to Prospect and demand for, and value of, housing increases,” Mr Maras said.
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