Old DMH building in Port Adelaide to be turned into $30 million retro 1970s hotel

The tallest building in Port Adelaide — left derelict for years — would be transformed into a $30m boutique hotel with rooftop bar. And it’s going to honour the 1970s.

• Huge residential development at the Port approved

The tallest building in Port Adelaide would be transformed into a $30 million boutique hotel under grand plans by Starfish Developments.

The new hotel, in the former Department of Marine and Harbours building on St Vincent St, is planned to open in about 18 months.

Starfish managing director Damon Nagel said the completed hotel would have up to 100 rooms and feature a rooftop bar.

It will also include the Port’s Arbour Collective — similar to The Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney — offering offer a market-style set-up with permanent vendors, with an emphasis on takeaway and finger foods.

The old DMH building in Port Adelaide. Photo: Supplied

A terrace restaurant and outdoor cinema would built at the front of the building.

The project is part of the $168 million housing development at Dock One that Mr Nagel’s firm is behind.

He said he would “embrace” the history and structure of the brutalist building.

He planned to retain its board-formed concrete — which he said was now expensive to create — and honour the 1970s design in its decor.

Original wood roof panelling would be retained on the ground floor — along with brass lamps fittings within it — as well as reusing part of the old reception desk in the hotel lobby.

“We’re keeping everything that has an element of value or aesthetic appeal to it,” Mr Nagel said.

“This is going to be a full-blown retro ‘70s hotel. It is going to be brutal. It’s all concrete.

“Our mantra with the Port was embracing the Port, not trying to create something that the Port’s not.”

The large murals on each side of the building would also be retained.

Developer Damon Nagel at the top of the old DMH building. Photo: Supplied

He predicted high demand for a new hotel in Port Adelaide and was buoyed by the success of the nearby Quest hotel, which he said had a 94 per cent occupancy rate and was booked out for three years.

Renewal SA had originally expressed a desire for the building to be demolished. Starfish was the only developer whose tender included plans to keep it.

Mr Nagel had investigated the possibility of turning the building into apartments but found a hotel would be more feasible.

“The apartment layouts were a whisker on the tiny side,” Mr Nagel said.

“Knowing the Port, you have to over-deliver here at the moment and we felt if you were putting in smaller apartments, that’s not over delivering.”

Inside the old DMH building in Port Adelaide, which is proposed to be turned into a hotel.

View from the top of the old DMH building where there will be a rooftop bar. Photo: Supplied

The building, constructed in 1971, has been vacant for more than two decades.

Since the DMH left it in the mid ’90s, it has occasionally been used for Star Force training.

Starfish last month won approval from the State Government’s development panel for the first stage of its Dock One development.

At its completion, the development will feature 750 homes in townhouses and apartments along with public spaces including a waterside piazza and boardwalk.

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