Matthew Abraham: Le Cornu sale flies in the face of cosy ties between government and developers

THE cosy ties between developers and government in SA has often angered the community. Will the Le Cornu sale be different, asks Matthew Abraham?

• Adelaide City Council to buy Le Cornu site
• Apartment and retail complex for Glenelg in limbo

It was our very first lounge suite, a three-seater and two single chairs, upholstered in beige fabric with a chocolate check pattern.

It was very ’70s, not because it was a retro, but because we bought it in the ’70s for our first home as newlyweds.

Aside from the double bed, it was the only new furniture in our two-bedroom unit at Torrens Park, notable for its bright orange shagpile carpet and a communal laundry block.

That lounge suite holds a special place in my heart – a dark place reserved for things that seem like a good idea at the time but you grow to detest.

It was a high-back design that pushed your head forward and down. I spent a lot of time on the lounge contemplating the shagadelic carpet because that’s all I could see.

Of course, we bought the suite from the Le Cornu showroom in North Adelaide, an emporium with the longest curved glass window in the southern hemisphere, designed to avoid reflection, ensuring an unimpeded view of the furniture on display.

It was a sad day when they bulldozed it in 1989, ranking right up there with Adelaide’s loss of the Cox Foys’ rooftop ferris wheel, the Buttery cafeteria at John Martins, the Myer bargain basement and Magic Mountain at Glenelg.

For almost 30 years, the vacant LeCornu site has grown weeds as grand plans to turn it into a Trump-lite tower, drowning in glass and hyperbole, have come and gone like the seasons.

Secretly, I have cheered as each grandiose plan for the site has hit the wall.

It has been described as an eyesore and a symbol of all that is wrong with Adelaide’s resistance to change. That’s one way of viewing it.

Another way of looking at the empty block of dirt on O’Connell St is to see it as a shining beacon of all that is wrong with Adelaide’s cosy relationship between governments and developers, a relationship that too often tramples on legitimate community concerns.

Remember when the Olsen Liberal Government gifted the precious land at the end of Anzac Hwy to developers who erected Holdfast Shores, permanently depriving people driving toward the beach of the blue sea, shimmering and inviting in the distance?

It was going to transform The Bay. It’s done no such thing.

Last week, the project that was going to transform North Adelaide did no such thing, either.

Despite having every planning clearance needed for its latest brilliant master plan, the Makris Group will sell its vacant Le Cornu site to the Adelaide City Council. Game over.

Yet again, ratepayers and taxpayers will kick in hard-earned cash to finance the deal. Just how much cash is a secret.

Speaking at North Adelaide, Premier Jay Weatherill said the site was “being taken out of the hands of private developers and put into the hands of the local community”.

“Through community consultation, we will see the site develop in line with what the community wants after so many years of inactivity.”

He really said that?

For the best part of a decade, the Rann/Weatherill governments have pushed through planning laws that have progressively dismantled the rights of residents to challenge developments – big and small – in their local community.

In a toss-up between listening to developers and listening to the locals, the developers have won, hands down.

Will things change dramatically if the Liberals somehow take office after the March election?

Liberal leader Steven Marshall’s former spin doctor, Daniel Gannon, heads the state’s Property Council, an outfit that gets high on high rise.

If the Liberals win government, the savvy and articulate Gannon will be welcome back with open arms – if he chose to switch back.

And during the 2014 election campaign, Marshall drew flak for attending a party fundraiser at the Adelaide home of developer Michael Hickinbotham.

At the time, the Liberals were promising – if elected – to fast-track a big Hickinbotham Group housing development at Roseworthy, near Gawler.

While Marshall was doing nothing wrong – and nor was Hickinbotham – it was not a good look for a leader who was bagging the ALP for being in bed with developers.

Some beds, like some lounge suites, can turn out to be a pain in the neck.