Major developers Walker and Charter Hall battle for Services Australia anchor
Two of Australia’s biggest developers are competing for a major government client that could prove key to getting huge Adelaide projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars off the ground.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Two of Australia’s biggest developers are battling for a major government tenant to kickstart their competing Adelaide office tower projects worth hundreds of million of dollars.
Walker Corp’s Festival Square and Charter Hall’s proposed Southern Cross Arcade complex are vying for Services Australia, the federal agency that delivers Medicare, Centrelink and child support payments and services.
The major tenant would become an anchor tenant for either project, taking 29,000 square metres of office space and kickstarting construction.
The $600 million Festival Square development, part of the wider Festival Plaza transformation, includes a 27-storey office tower and three-level premium retail/entertainment precinct between the Adelaide Casino and Parliament House.
Charter Hall’s plan for a 15-storey King William St tower involves razing Southern Cross Arcade and the adjacent Sands and McDougall building – the latter opposed by Adelaide City Council because it is provisionally listed as a State Heritage Place.
Both firms did not comment directly on the tussle for a major tenant a Walker Corp spokesman said talks were “focused around the unequalled quality of the Festival Square commercial product”.
Infrastructure Minister Corey Wingard on Wednesday said the revamped Station Rd, also between the Casino and Parliament House, would reopen within weeks and repeatedly stressed the State Government’s desire to complete the Walker office tower and associated complex.
“We’re really keen to work with the Walker Corporation. Of course, they have got another construct here with a big office tower, and we want to work with them and get that delivered as quickly as possible,” Mr Wingard said.
“One, so we can get the project completed but, two, so that we can complete the plaza realm that goes around it for the good of all South Australians.”
Asked if the government had set a timeline on completing talks with Walker Corp, Mr Wingard blamed contractual and other “constraints that were put in place” by the previous Labor government for frustration over the project dragging on since 2012.
Walker Corp is building a 1560-space, five storey underground carpark, set to be finished by mid-2021, but the office tower has been on the drawing board since 2012.
In a potential end to eight years of wrangling over the prime Riverbank site, the government in April added $31 million to its previous $222.35 million budget to overhaul the public square, between the Casino, parliament and Adelaide Festival Centre.
Mr Wingard said Station Rd would reopen within weeks, coinciding with the expected November completion of SkyCity’s $330 million Casino expansion.
“This redevelopment is set to become Adelaide’s premier events and open public space in the heart of the Riverbank precinct,” Minister Wingard said.