City Deal go-ahead to transform old RAH as Space Agency announced

Adelaide will get a City Deal, which will see the old hospital site on North Tce transformed into an international drawcard for tourists and entrepreneurs, it was announced this morning.

Tory Shepherd

@ToryShepherd

2 min read

December 12, 2018 - 12:06PM

SA News

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Adelaide will get a City Deal, which will see the old hospital site on North Tce transformed into an international drawcard for tourists and entrepreneurs, it was announced this morning.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Steven Marshall made the announcement this morning alongside the news that South Australia has won the race for the Australian Space Agency, as revealed by Advertiser.com.au last night.

The deal will be the bookmark on an historic week for the state, which also has seen mining magnate Sanjeev Gupta announce hundreds of millions of dollars of investment Whyalla.

It will be a significant development for Adelaide and the timing of the announcement suggests the Space Agency would be its centrepiece.

As well as the Space Agency, the State Government wants the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, now known as Lot Fourteen, to include an Innovation, Incubator, Startup and Growth Hub, an International Centre for Tourism, Hospitality and Food Services and a National Gallery for Aboriginal Art and Culture.

Announcing the massive coup this morning, Mr Marshall said: “This is what vision looks like.”

Artist impression of Lot Fourteen at the old RAH site.

Cities and Population Minister Alan Tudge said the redevelopment of the old RAH would harness Adelaide’s greatest strengths — “its cultural depth, research excellence and commercial potential”.

“The Agency location and the Adelaide City Deal will align to allow better management of population growth and city planning,” Mr Tudge said.

“This will ensure jobs, infrastructure, services and public spaces are in place to create a faster-growing, productive and liveable Adelaide.”

Inking of Adelaideâ€™s City Deal for Lot 14 pic.twitter.com/3fJfbtiJIC
â€” Tory Shepherd (@ToryShepherd) December 11, 2018

“City Deals are about all three levels of government working together to drive the local economy and we are already seeing many cities benefitting from these deals including Darwin, Townsville, Launceston and Western Sydney.”

Mr Tudge said there would be further announcements about the deal in the new year, including the amount of money the Federal Government will commit. It is also yet to be confirmed how long the deal will run for, although Mr Tudge indicated it would be at least a decade.

The old RAH site will be transformed into an international drawcard. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

City Deal Background

Mr Tudge was in Adelaide last month discussing the deal with the State Government.

Mr Tudge told The Advertiser at the time that his aim was to formalise an agreement for a City Deal with Adelaide before next year’s federal election.

“I am going to have a discussion with the Premier Steven Marshall about what the shape of a City Deal might look like,” Mr Tudge said.

“Adelaide is already a fantastic city, but it has got so much potential in front of it.”

City Deals — described by the federal government as a genuine partnership between all three levels of government and the community to work towards a shared vision for productive and liveable cities — have been struck in all other states of Australia.

They have been struck in Tasmania’s two largest cities Hobart and Launceston, in Western Sydney, Victoria’s second largest city Geelong, Northern Territory capital Darwin, Townsville in Queensland and West Australian capital Perth.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull created the City Deals program in 2015 to forge better partnerships between all levels of government.