Billionaire property developer Lang Walker has $800m plan to redevelop Festival Centre precinct
BILLIONAIRE property developer Lang Walker has an $800 million plan to redevelop the Adelaide Festival Centre precinct and says it will revitalise the underused city space.
BILLIONAIRE property developer Lang Walker has an $800 million plan to redevelop the Adelaide Festival Centre precinct and says it will revitalise the underused city space.
Mr Walker and the State Government announced a $46.5 million deal in February to build a new carpark and to give the Festival Centre plaza a facelift, but he has now completed a more comprehensive plan, which is expected to soon be considered by Cabinet.
The Government last year rezoned the area to allow development, including office blocks more than 20 storeys high, but Premier Jay Weatherill later ruled out such high-rise buildings.
TELL US: What do you want to see at the Festival Centre precinct? Should it change or stay the same?
“It’s an $800 million project that is going to be good for Adelaide, the people of Adelaide and it’s going to activate that whole area,’’ Mr Walker said.
Mr Walker, who through his company Walker Corp has donated thousands of dollars to state Labor, visited the new Adelaide Oval for the first time at the weekend and said his plan would “build on Adelaide’s national and international identity”.
More: $46.5 million upgrade announced for Festival Centre precinct
More: 2012 plan for Festival Centre’s $400 million overhaul
He compared the potential of the Riverbank to other areas his company had previously redeveloped in Sydney and Melbourne.
“That (the Festival Plaza) has been an eyesore there for a heck of a long time and I think now with the election over ... I think Adelaide needs some things to kick it along, and this is really something.
“We have done it in locations in Sydney and Melbourne, creating vibrant, mixed-use precincts such as King Street Wharf and the Wharf at Woolloomooloo in Sydney and at Collins Square in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne.”
Cabinet is expected to consider his plan soon, but but the exact timing is unknown.
Mr Walker said he was told by the Planning, Transport and Infrastructure Department last week that sacked chief executive Rod Hook had been due to take the proposal to Cabinet.
“Now that he is not there, we don’t know what that means,’’ he said.
Mr Walker said his interest “is primarily around Festival Plaza and links between this space and the Adelaide Festival Centre, the parkland, Adelaide Oval, Parliament House, the casino, the railway station and links south to the CBD, as well as west to the broader Riverbank precinct.’’
Walker Corp was last year awarded exclusivity as the preferred developer of the site, but the Government has reserved the option of walking away from the deal.
“We want to create a special place for the people of Adelaide and South Australia that is vibrant and activated day and night,’’ he said.
However, Mr Walker believes South Australia is overly conservative about change.
“What I find with Adelaide is everyone is anti-something,’’ he said.
“Adelaideans are very much opposed to everything until it is finished and then it’s almost as if ‘we knew it would work out’.’’
Walker Corp already has several projects in South Australia.
It has developed the Bluestone housing project at Mt Barker and is the company backing the Buckland Park housing project in Adelaide’s north.
The Buckland Park project attracted controversy in 2010 after it was approved just days after Mr Walker attended a $1500-a-head Labor fundraising dinner.
The State Government declined to comment.