Sydney-based investor Jie Chen buys historic Edmund Wright House for $6.3m
After remaining empty for four years, one of the state’s most historic buildings has been bought for more than $6 million by a Sydney investor.
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After remaining empty for four years, one of the state’s most historic buildings has been bought for more than $6 million by a Sydney investor.
Sydney-based Jie Chen has paid the State Government $6.38 million for state heritage-listed Edmund Wright House on King William St in the Adelaide CBD.
He is working with international property group JLL to develop a long-term plan to revitalise the building, which has remained empty since 2015.
Mr Chen declined to comment on his plans for the building, but JLL suggested future uses could include hospitality, function or office space, or conversion to a boutique hotel, with the potential for future occupants to “show the building off to the people of South Australia”.
Planning Minister Stephan Knoll said any redevelopment would need to meet the requirements of the building’s heritage status.
“Now that the sale has been finalised the State Government is looking forward to seeing how the purchaser intends to bring this beautiful heritage treasure back to life,” he said.
“Obviously there is a very strict framework in place to ensure any changes preserve the heritage of the building, including minor changes like a new coat of paint.”
Edmund Wright House is Mr Chen’s first investment in Adelaide, adding to his growing portfolio of commercial and residential properties on the eastern seaboard.
In 2017, he paid $4.75 million for former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke’s 93ha rural retreat in Berrima, between Sydney and Canberra.
The Clarkes paid $3.1 million for the ‘Round Hill’ estate in 2012, when Clarke was planning to set up a cricket academy around the corner from Bowral, the hometown of Australia’s most renowned cricketer, Don Bradman.
British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta pulled out of the race to secure Edmund Wright House after signalling an interest in the property when it hit the market in August last year.
JLL director Roger Klem, who brokered the sale of the building, said it attracted an “unprecedented” level of interest, generating more than 13,000 unique online views.
“We have never marketed a property that has generated that level of online inquiry, with much of the inquiry coming from interstate investors,” he said.
Edmund Wright House is steeped in history, dating back to 1878 when it became the first home of the Bank of South Australia.
The building was designed by architect and former Adelaide Lord Mayor Edmund Wright and Lloyd Tayler, and has been hailed as one of the few significant architectural statements of 1870s commercial architecture remaining on King William St.
In 1970, Sydney development company Mainline Corporation acquired the historic building, with plans to build a 19-storey office building on the site.
However, a year later the Dunstan government famously acquired the property after more than 67,000 people petitioned against the building’s demolition. The campaign contributed to the enactment of the South Australian Heritage Act seven years later.
In 1972, the building was named Edmund Wright House, and since then has accommodated various government departments, and for many years housed the offices of the Registrar Of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
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