Adelaide should create an international drawcard on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site

A BOLD, internationally recognised development for the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site is being urged by state investment attraction agency chairman Rob Chapman to create a drawcard for the city.

An artist’s impression of The Old Royal Adelaide Hospital Site.

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A BOLD, internationally recognised development for the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site is being urged by state investment attraction agency chairman Rob Chapman to create a drawcard for the city.

Citing the Adelaide Oval redevelopment’s success as a key example of innovation, Mr Chapman said the old RAH was “a huge opportunity that we shouldn’t let go”.

A billion-dollar deal with a private consortium fell through in September, prompting the State Government to manage the redevelopment of the 7ha site – vacated that month for the $2.3 billion new RAH.

A $7.1 million Australian-first institute focused on artificial intelligence, backed by Adelaide University and the government, was announced this month as the site’s first tenant.

Mr Chapman, who heads the state’s lead government agency for all major investment activity, said a residential component should be included so any developer could get a decent return.

“Be bold with that (old RAH site). There’s not 7ha of land at the proximity or on the edge of any CBD in the world that I know of,” said Mr Chapman (above), who is also the Adelaide Football Club chairman.

“We’ve been bold with Adelaide Oval. We built it – they came. It’s lauded internationally but certainly across the nation.”

Part of the old RAH site (highlighted in green) will be returned to the Botanic Garden.

Asked how boldness could be expressed, Mr Chapman said: “Something that’s internationally recognised. Something that’s going to be a drawcard. Something that Adelaide can get known for.

“Come up with some designs. Come up with a museum. Come up with a state-of-the-art, world-leading-edge initiative that puts us on the map.”

Since the new RAH was announced in 2007, government plans for the old site have included, in 2009, a Federation Square-style “green plaza” and, in 2013, an international design competition’s winning plan of a school, student accommodation, gallery and open space.

Plans for a high school on the site were shelved in 2015 when it was announced the new Adelaide school would be based at a refurbished building nearby on Frome Rd.

The now-dumped developers’ proposal, from a consortium of Adelaide-based Commercial & General and John Holland, included 1200 private apartments, an expanded Botanic Garden, hotel, contemporary art gallery and underground music hall.

The government now plans to return more than 2ha to the Botanic Garden, educational, cultural and research facilities and to attract commercial tenancies.

A modern art gallery proposed for the old RAH site.

Proponents are being short-listed for a five-star hotel, while heritage buildings will be used by the Adelaide Fringe and other events during a two-year, $150 million demolition of other buildings. An international search for a world-class team to design a proposed Adelaide contemporary art gallery has also begun.

Expanding the Botanic Garden and creating open recreational space were the most popular preferences for the old RAH among more than 3500 respondents to the Sunday Mail’s Your Say SA survey published this month.

A State Government spokeswoman said a residential component was part of the vision to maintain day and night activity, replacing people lost by the hospital’s relocation and to develop economic activity in the East End. Further “exciting” announcements about the site’s future would be made soon.

Lord Mayor Martin Haese welcomed short-term “activation” of the site for events and impending demolition of non-heritage buildings, but said “a clear, articulated vision of what’s going in there” was required soon.

“It’s got to be the kind of thing that, when you get off a plane at Adelaide Airport, that’s where you’re going,” he said.

Mr Haese said the city council supported educational, research and cultural uses, but believed residential was inappropriate because building private homes on a parkland area set a dangerous precedent and the city already had $2 billion of residential development in the pipeline.

An artist’s impression of a redeveloped old RAH site.

Liberal infrastructure spokesman David Pisoni said any development must secure international recognition, saying Labor’s current plan would not achieve this but the Liberals would announce their version before the March 17 election.

“This is the nation’s prime urban site awaiting redevelopment, so we must have high ambitions for it,” Mr Pisoni said. “The site must be a unique and significant driver of job creation and investment, as well as incorporating a cultural element of international significance.”

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said the government-run process had been “a decade of policy dereliction”.

“That site could be a springboard for an economic development that will not only revive the East End but also be a massive tourism drawcard,” he said.

“We need to have a design competition where it’s South Australian designers, architects, innovators who are at the forefront of it, so there’s an opportunity for SA design and innovation to shine through.”

An artist’s impression of a redeveloped old RAH site.

Mr Xenophon said this could include a music hall, honouring SA musical iden­tities such as the late Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood, and left open the possibility of residential development on the site.

Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association president Shane Sody accused the government of contravening the law, citing a section of the 2005 Adelaide Park Lands Act, by failing to produce a plan for returning the site to parklands.

“This is a choice which would be not just the boldest decision but also the decision that reflected Adelaide’s unique aesthetic as the only city in the world built inside a park,” Mr Sody said.