Here’s a property that will spin you out: Glenelg’s revolving restaurant on the market

GLENELG’S revolving restaurant was once home to the hottest dining – and best views – in town. Now it could be all yours for the price of a flash house. Nathan Davies took a look inside.

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IT might be the most unusual property for sale in Adelaide, if not all of Australia – a 420m2 space, fifty metres above Glenelg, with views stretching from the Southern beaches to Port Adelaide and the Mt Lofty Ranges.

Oh, and it revolves.

Located at the top of the famous Atlantic Tower Motor Inn – at one point the tallest residential building in Adelaide – the revolving level has played host to a number of restaurants since the hotel was completed in 1980.

The Atlantic Tower being built in the 1970s.

Now it’s on the market for just $1.5m, or the price of the average home in Rose Park. According to agents Alan Lim and Matt Lazarus, of Belle Property, the revolving floor could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an investor with an eye for the unusual.

“I honestly think this is the most unique property in Australia at the moment,” Belle executive Matt Lazarus said.

Atlantic Revolving Restaurant-Motel, 1981.

“You hear that term ‘unique property’ in real estate all the time, but this time I think it’s definitely justified.

“This is Adelaide’s only revolving floor plate.

“The opportunity is there for another restauranteur or entrepreneur to set up here and thrive.”

Mr Lim said that while the space was still set up as a restaurant, complete with a huge commercial kitchen in the centre, there was no reason why it couldn’t be reimagined as something else.

“I don’t see why it couldn’t be an apartment,” he said. “It offers everything an apartment has. Of course it would be subject to all the approvals, but I couldn’t foresee any problems with that.”

Mr Lazarus said he’d had a number of enquiries from the eastern seaboard, “especially from Sydney”.

Staff at the Roundabout Steak and Seafood Bistro in 1990.

“When they compare it how much something like Centrepoint Tower would cost they’re quite fascinated,” he said. “You’re not going to get a property like this anywhere else at this price point.”

Turning on tracks powered by a small – but highly-geared – 1.5hp motor, the floor takes about 90 minutes to do a full rotation. “It certainly won’t be dizzying, but the views will always be changing,” Mr Lim said.

Atlantic Tower Motor Inn general manager James Brown said the building was originally planned as one of several similar high-rises in Glenelg, each one with a roof-top helipad to whisk executives off to their high-powered jobs in the city.

Rock Lobster Cafe proprietors Jack and Irene Psellos in 1993.

However things didn’t quite go to plan for the developers, and only one tower was ever built. Even then it took a long time to get its first residents.

“We believe the building was started in 1968 or 69,” Mr Brown said.

“I understand two different property developers went bankrupt trying to get it finished in the seventies, and strata was incorporated in 1980. It took a long time.”

The first restaurant in the revolving floor was the Rock Lobster Café, run for many years by Jack and Irene Psellos, before a new leaseholder changed it to the Top of the World Restaurant.

The new owner, however, spread himself too thin after opening a city gay bar to rival Gouger Street’s famous Mars Bar.

Belle Property agents Mark Lazarus and Alan Lim outside Glenelg’s revolving restaurant. Picture: Tom Huntley

“It was only open for six weeks, and he poured all of his money into it,” Mr Brown said. “He left the country owing millions to creditors. I think he went back to Europe.”

Two former managers took over in about 2010, and ran the restaurant for a few more years before packing up. It’s sat empty ever since.

Mr James said he’d love to see the space brought back as a restaurant, but agreed that it could also make an incredible – if difficult to configure – apartment.

“Where do you plug your TV in if all the floor is revolving and the walls don’t?” he said.