Proposals for old Le Cornu site expected to be revealed after being put to Adelaide City Council next month
Plans to build on a controversial plot of land that has been vacant for 30 years will go before council next month.
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Proposals to develop the old Le Cornu site are expected to be revealed to Adelaide City Council next month – but they might not be made public.
A report to the council showed that “submissions were currently being assessed and will be presented … for consideration in August 2019”.
The report also said construction on the $34 million block of land at 88 O’Connell St in North Adelaide was unlikely to start before 2022.
The council did not respond on how many submissions it had received, how many would be presented to council and if the content would be made public or kept confidential.
Acting Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad said development at the site had been a “dream in the making”.
“I think it will be an incredible outcome for North Adelaide and also for the city,” Cr Abiad said.
“I’m confident this council will deliver.”
It is understood Commercial and General and Starfish Developments were the final two companies to present their ideas last month, but both declined to comment.
Furniture retailer Le Cornu had owned the 1.6ha site, once dubbed Adelaide’s “Bermuda Triangle”, for 134 years before it was sold in 1989.
That same year, The Advertiser reported the O’Connell St site was “one of North Adelaide’s prime development areas and has been tipped to spark the rejuvenation of the ailing shopping strip”.
Since then its history has been dogged by controversy. A string of developers’ plans for the site have failed over the years.
They include a $40 million shopping centre proposed by merchant bank Tricontinental and Oberdan family’s Kellyvale Group in 1989 and a $22 million retail building in 1992.
Property tycoon Con Makris planned to build a luxury apartment, retail and hotel complex worth more than $200 million in 2014, but that fell through.
The council bought the site for $34 million in December 2017.