Wholesale revamp for Adelaide’s ‘People’s Palace’ as the Pelligra Goup moves into the CBD
Melbourne’s Pelligra Group has splashed out $14 million on Adelaide’s historic Pirie House with a view to carrying out a multimillion-dollar refit into office accommodation.
THE Melbourne headquartered development company that is breathing life into the former Holden car manufacturing facility in northern Adelaide is about to take on a revamp of a historic, and long neglected, Adelaide city centre building.
Ross Pelligra, who heads up the Pelligra Group has splashed out $14 million on 89 Pirie St with a view to carrying out a multimillion-dollar refit.
‘Pirie House’, most recently home to Allianz, is currently empty after Mr Pelligra settled on the deal a couple of weeks ago and a local demolition firm has already been called in to strip out the building, a stand out on Pirie St with its facade dating back to 1878.
The Pelligra Group, which made its first major venture into South Australia in late 2017 with the $55 million purchase of the iconic Philip Highway car plant in Elizabeth - rebadging it as Lionsgate and bringing in major new clients such as Sonnen (batteries) and Levett Engineering - is making its first move into the Adelaide CBD with the Pirie St purchase.
Pelligra will retain about 200sq m on level two for use as a CBD office as well as a display suite to be used as part of its ongoing marketing campaigns.
The main building sits behind the facade which formed part of the old German Club from when the foundation stone was laid in 1878 until 1979 when mounting debts forced its sale to the Salvation Army. It has a ground floor/lobby plus eight floors, which are all available to lease.
James Parkyn at JLL and Chris Lucas at CBRE are the appointed, joint leasing agents.
“There will be a lobby upgrade and a cafe on the ground floor,” Mr Parkyn said. “End of trip facilities will include new showers, changing rooms and bike racks and there will also be new state of the art lifts. All floors are being stripped out and can be customised by new tenants.”
The Pelligra Group expects to be in situ by the end of October this year with all floors expects to be ready for new tenants to move in around March 2020 Mr Parkyn said. There is 7000sq m available across the eight floors with a balcony (with much entertaining possibilities) on level five overlooking Pirie St. There will be a maximum space of about 90 people per floor with Pirie House’s marketing power enhanced by its connection to Adelaide’s 10 Gigabit high speed broadband network.
Speed of demolition and restyling will be paramount Mr Parkyn said.
“Pelligra is a design and fit our company so can do it all very quickly.”
Pelligra has more than six decades of experience in the development and construction business with the bulk of its projects covering shopping centres, business parts and residential apartment blocks across Victoria.
Pelligra project manager Brett Douglas said that local contractors would be taken on to carry out the refit with Adelaide’s Harris Demolition doing the current stripping out.
Already JLL has genuine tenant interest for two floors Mr Parkyn said.
The site has a fascinating history and was known as the ‘People’s Palace’ for decades after the Salvation Army took over in 1899.
Its meeting room could accommodate up to 400 people with a large hall, named Albert Hall, designed by Bayer and Withall and added to the rear of the building and which accommodated 1500 people.
The Salvation Army stayed on the site until 1979, first serving as its headquarters and later providing low cost temporary accommodation.
The building has been damaged over the years by fire, one of which led to the demolition of the Albert Hall. After its sale by the Salvation Army, the People’s Palace was redeveloped as offices but the modified facade, opposite Chesser St, has remained a distinctive feature of Pirie Street.