Laucke family sells slice of flour production empire in Strathalbyn
One of the world’s leading flour producers is selling a slice of its SA empire and there are big hopes for the future of the Strathalbyn property.
Adelaide Hills
Don't miss out on the headlines from Adelaide Hills. Followed categories will be added to My News.
One of the State’s oldest and last remaining flour mills is being offered to the market for the first time in over 90 years.
Mark Laucke of internationally acclaimed Laucke Flour Mills has listed the property at 27 Commercial Rd, Strathalbyn with Sexton Glover Watts for $820,000.
The 171-year-old property has been classified as a silent mill since 1961, when the company moved to a modern set-up on the opposite end of town.
Mr Laucke, who bought the property off the family-run company in the seventies, said he had intended to transform the building into home. A plan that never came to fruition.
“I gave up my salary for two to three years to buy this property off the company and my wife and I lived on cardboard boxes for a while until we paid for it. That’s how much we loved this building and didn’t want it to decay,” Mr Laucke said.
“It was our full intention to turn it into a home and had even started contracting a prominent architect.
“But after a year, a lovely residence came up in Strathalbyn and we bought that so we never ended turning the mill into a home.
“So now we’ve finally decided, as much as it hurts our hearts, to sell it to someone else as it needs that next person to do something with it.”
Mr Laucke said the property lend itself to a variety of uses but his main concern was that the building would be retained and transformed into a community asset.
“While I think it would be a great home, I have been approached by developers or prospective owners all my life to do something with it,” he said.
“The first time was in the 1970s, just after we bought it and I had people wanting to buy some of the land adjacent to it for development but we didn’t like that.
“We also always had the idea that it could be a gin distillery or workshop for people creating knifes or similar. It would also be a fantastic brewhouse.
“Personally, I think the building’s future has got to be commercial because it needs to make money, other it will just fall apart as it needs to be maintained.”
The building is set on 1250sqm on the corner of Commercial Rd and Mill St.
The zoning is “District Centre” allowing a variety of land use subject to consents.
The building first opened as a flour mill in 1849 with the current owners only the third family the hold the title for this property.