Thorngate Skywalk City: How the ill-fated, controversial and “preposterous” plan failed
It was the ill-fated, controversial and “preposterous” plan to transform a historic Adelaide suburb into a $1.4 billion metropolis — but it never happened. We share the inside story as to why.
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An audacious “pie in the sky” $1.4 billion vision to transform an entire block of a prestigious Adelaide suburb into a mini-city can be publicly revealed for the first time.
But the futuristic concept, which would have transformed a 20,000sq m block in residential Thorngate into a towering residential, retail and office precinct, failed to get State Government support and has left some residents tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
The ill-fated Thorngate Skywalk City plan, which Prospect Mayor David O’Loughlin described as “preposterous”, was to be 20 storeys tall, include 800 apartments, have a five-star hotel, a retirement village, a medical centre and 3000 underground car parks.
The penthouses were to have sky garages serviced by lifts.
The project was presented to senior members of Prospect Council and State Government-Coordinator General Jim Hallion.
In 2016, the City North Messenger revealed residents’ disquiet over a potential large-scale development of their suburb after neighbours signed contracts with businessman and project director Elli Cakar for the exclusive right to purchase their properties at up to six times the market value if the project went ahead.
The Advertiser has since learnt that at least four residents invested collectively several hundred thousand dollars with Mr Cakar and his development company, Living Australia.
At least two of those did so in exchange for significantly higher prices for their properties if the project proceeded.
It is understood about 24 of a required 30 property owners signed similar contracts, facilitated through Henley Beach-based Michaelkris Real Estate, dating back to as early as June 2015.
Mr Cakar was unable to secure the required number of properties required for the project and no development application was lodged with the council or government.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr Cakar had asked residents to invest towards architectural plans and concept drawings.
He said he was among “many intelligent people” who fell for the “pie in the sky” project.
The man said he confronted Mr Cakar in late 2017 and told him that he did not believe the project was going to happen and asked for his money back.
“I left (the meeting) but I knew I at that time I wasn’t going to get my money back,” he said.
Another resident said that Mr Cakar told him the money was for upfront costs for the development, including initial designs and concept plans.
“He (Mr Cakar) said he wanted as many residents to ‘invest’ because things would work better when everyone has some ‘skin in the game’,” he said.
“He told me he had Chinese backers who were going to give him hundreds of millions of dollars for the project once he got the development approved.
“He told me he had an offer of $US1.2 billion and they (investors) would be visiting in January 2017.”
The resident said Mr Cakar gave him “bad news” in September 2017 that the Government was in caretaker mode ahead of the March state election and was not going to approve anything until after the poll.
He said Mr Cakar told him at the private meeting that he would return his money if the project did not go ahead.
Mr Cakar’s former development partner and project designer, Robert Warren, said he was not paid for the architectural work he performed.
He said he became aware, soon after terminating his partnership with Mr Cakar in 2016, that property owners had loaned money to Mr Cakar, who operates pubs including the Royal Terrace Hotel, Anchorage Hotel, The Glenelg Pier Hotel and The Lady Bay Hotel.
“He apparently borrowed this money from the landowners to increase the end return to them,” Mr Warren, a Sydney-based businessman said, adding the Thorngate development was about $US1 billion.”
“If the developer had promised to do something and had pulled out for some reason and not gone ahead, that borrowed money should have been in a trust (account) in the developer’s name for return to those people.”
Mr Warren said he had revised the scope of the initial proposal on the advice of co-ordinator general Jim Hallion in 2016.
“I had several investors who were most keen on Adelaide, some had been living here before, and they were from China, and others were in Europe,” he said.
“It’s actually such a pity the overall development would not be built, because it would have made a most noteworthy gateway to the city.”
Mr Hallion’s office confirmed that in October 2016 he met with Mr Warren who outlined a proposal to create a “city complex” of 17-21 storeys.
His office said Mr Hallion indicated the design could not be approved by the council or the State Commission Assessment Panel because it did not comply with planning guidelines.
“The State Coordinator General suggested the proponent examine other geographical areas where zoning is appropriate for this scale of development,” the spokesman said.
He said Mr Hallion again met with Mr Warren in January 2017 to discuss a seven-storey proposal, which included road closures.
Mr Hallion had outlined potential challenges to the proposal such as “parking, height, retail limit and access issues”.
The spokesman said Mr Hallion was not aware of a development proposal being lodged with the Planning Department or the former Development Assessment Commission, now the SCAP.
Mr O’Loughlin said to his knowledge no detailed drawings or engineering designs were ever done for the project.
He said the original design was completely “fanciful” considering the zoning for the suburb was a maximum four storeys fronting Main North Rd.
“Thorngate is one of the most tightly zoned residential areas in the whole city; we told them thanks for coming but we in no way can support what you’re doing,” he said.
Mr Cakar said he was unable to comment on the project due to a confidentiality agreement “signed by all parties”.
The Advertiser subsequently sent him 18 questions about the project including what had happened to the money invested by property owners.
Mr Cakar is currently challenging a separate court bid to wind up Living Australia over a $24,995 debt.
Michael Kris Real Estate principal Kris Papagiannis declined to comment about his knowledge of the payments or to discuss the Thorngate project more generally, citing “client confidentiality”.
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