Business owners, residents reject idea to put temporary car park on North Adelaide’s eyesore Le Cornu site

AN idea to put temporary car-parking on the “eyesore” Le Cornu site while the council decides its future has been rejected by locals, who want the site developed or turned into green space for community use.

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AN idea to put temporary car parking on the “eyesore” Le Cornu site while the Adelaide City Council decides its future has been rejected by surrounding business owners and residents.

Instead, they have urged the council to “just develop it” or, in the mean time, “activate” the site into green space for the community because the North Adelaide strip is “dying” and “an embarrassment to the state”.

Vacant since 1989, the site was recently sold to the council for a “dirt cheap” $34 million by billionaire property developer Con Makris, despite receiving higher offers from other bidders.

Mr Makris yesterday said he believed site, once dubbed Adelaide’s “Bermuda Triangle”, was being turned into a “big car park”.

North Adelaide Precinct Association president Morag Horton said she was meeting with the council tonight to discuss both short and long-term plans for the site.

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She does not, however, support a short-term car-park on the land.

“We are hoping for a temporary activation of the space — we think a car park would be an eyesore,” she said.

“(We would like to see) a greening of the space. We’d love to see something that is used as a community hub that retains and attracts people to North Adelaide.

“We acknowledge that parking needs to be incorporated in the development though.”

Ugly ... the Le Cornu Site in North Adelaide. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Just down the street from the site’s graffitied, corrugated iron fences, Black Eye Coffee manager Anton Phan explains he believes “anything would be better than what is there now”.

“It looks gross,” he said.

If parking is put on the site as a temporary measure, Mr Phan said it should be free because the street needs more foot traffic.

“It (O’Connell Street) is supposed to be a spot where people come but most of the time it’s not very busy,” he said.

Mr Phan supported the idea of incorporating a large hotel on the site because it “would attract much needed tourists” to the area.

Prospect resident Arista Markou, who walks about 2km to the North Adelaide strip everyday, said the site was “an embarrassment to the state”, adding the council should “just develop it”.

“When the Sheridan Hotel was looking at the site, it seemed promising,” she said.

“Considering the status of what North Adelaide stood for, it (the street) has nothing on offer — it’s dying.

“The streets look awful ... council needs to create an attraction, this is prime real estate for tourists and for accommodation (so) a hotel would make sense.”

Un Caffe Bar manager Kerri Martin, whose cafe overlooks the dilapidated land, said the land should be developed into “something to bring the tourists in”.

“I can’t say a car park would do much for it,” she said.

Brompton resident Robbie Brechin agreed something needed to be done — and fast.

“It (the site) is a disgrace,” he said.

“It’s hurting Adelaide and it’s hurting traders.”

Mr Brechin said he “would like to hear a plan that will actually go ahead”.

An Adelaide City Council spokesman this morning told The Advertiser a temporary car park was being considered among options for the site while development plans were finalised.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill, Adelaide City councillor Natasha Malani and Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese speak to the media after announcing the purchase of the former Le Cornu site in North Adelaide. AAP Image/David Mariuz.

Over the past 30 years, the site has been the subject of many failed development plans and former owners, the Makris Group, received many formal tenders from hotel chains across the globe to operate the complex.

In December 2014, construction plans were released — and abandoned — for a $200 million residential, retail and hotel development that included a 160-bed hotel, 131 apartments as well as office and retail space.

Artist impressions of the proposed $200 million redevelopment of the old Le Cornu site at 88 O'Connell St, North Adelaide. Picture: Makris Group.

Artist impressions of the proposed $200 million redevelopment of the old Le Cornu site at 88 O'Connell St, North Adelaide. Picture: Makris Group.

In 2005, Mr Makris unveiled a $100 million luxury complex intended to transform the site but his plans never got off the group.

And, as far back as 1989, a $40 million shopping centre never came into fruition.