Off the Record: Theo Maras takes on the naysayers, Sandy Verschoor’s tricky moment, Kellie Sloane runs for politics
In Off the Record this week, developer (and saint?) Theo Maras tells naysayers to get nicked and the Lord Mayor finds herself in a tricky spot.
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In this week’s Off the Record, some surprising guests rocked up to the Central Market Arcade launch; Adelaide’s Lord Mayor found herself in a tricky spot over the proposed Riverbank Arena and a former Adelaide journalist is after Glady’s Berejiklian’s old seat.
Get nicked
Adelaide Central Market Authority Theo Marasgave one of his customarily frank speeches at the official launch of the sales campaign for the $400m redevelopment of the Adelaide Central Market Arcade on Thursday.
The high-profile property developer told 80 invited guests in a replica display suite on Victoria Square that the joint venture between Adelaide City Council and a Melbourne-based developer, ICD Property, had set a real estate record by already selling 82 per cent of its 212-odd apartments.
“The situation is pretty emotional for me because, for the past 14 to 15 months, the naysayers of Adelaide have been telling me this is not going to happen; it is not going to get off the ground,” he said.
“Well, I have got to say: get nicked.
“It is getting off the ground. Here we are, it is 82 per cent pre-sold and if we have any more of this hoo ha about ‘it won’t happen’, well here it is, it is going to happen.”
Among those who enjoyed the speech were Property Council SA executive director Daniel Gannon and Renewal SA chief executive Chris Menz, who left successful development Commercial & General to join the public sector.
Other guests included Adelaide Film Festival director Mat Kesting, winemaker Steve Maglieri, Coopers Brewery chairman Glenn Cooper, state government advisor Torie Brown and emerging young winemaker Jack Tomich.
Also present was Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor and Adelaide City Council chief executive Clare Mockler who, with acting city shaping director Tom McCready, have been heavily involved with the project, Market Square.
They were joined by deputy lord mayor Mary Couros and councillors Simon Hou, Alexander Hyde, Greg Mackie and Franz Knoll.
Raising some eyebrows for attending were councillors Phillip Martin and Anne Moran, who cost the project a potential $40m investment when they publicly questioned whether the money was coming from mainland China.
The managing director of ICD Property, Matthew Khoo, was unable to attend due to border closures, instead sending a video message from Melbourne.
Mr Khoo was so upset with Cr Martin that he wrote a letter to Ms Verschoor, complaining that he had jeopardised overseas investment in the project and South Australia.
It would have been interesting to see them in the same room together.
Saint Theo
While on Theo Maras, he may have been called many names over the years but St Theo probably isn’t one of them.
A portrait, “St Theofanis”, was one of more than 50 entries in the inaugural biennial By George art prize that boasted a prize pool of $11,000.
Mr Maras, a senior member of the Greek Orthodox Church, told Off the Record he received a call earlier this year seeking his “blessing” to be painted by local artist Anezoula Julia Karpathakis.
“I’m no saint, but Julia’s certainly captured my likeness in this portrait. Of course, it’s tongue in cheek and a bit of fun but I’m humbled by it”, he said.
While St Theofanis didn’t take out the main prize, it is still in the running for the people’s choice award.
The award, launched by the Foundation for Hellenic Studies to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence, was won by a unique interstate video entry featuring Aboriginal art.
Opened by Hellenic Studies chairman Greg Crafter on Thursday night, the exhibition can be viewed by appointment at the popup Gallery 108 in Wakefield St each Friday night in November and online.
Numbers game
Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor found herself in a tricky situation this week when she had to use her casting vote on a crucial decision about the proposed $662m entertainment arena on the banks of the Torrens.
Elected members were split 5-5 because the leader of her council’s dominant faction, Alexander Hyde, had declared a perceived conflict of interest before absenting himself from a special meeting on Tuesday night.
The meeting had been called by Verschoor to finalise the city council’s response to zoning changes within the Riverbank Precinct which, among other things, would allow 20-storey buildings around the arena.
Cr Phillip Martin wanted to change a motion to make it clear that the council was opposed to any permanent commercial buildings within the parklands, including the area near the Morphett St bridge where Premier Steven Marshall wants the arena to be built.
Martin twice made references about the “member for Taylor” and “member for Waite”, a thinly-veiled attack against Hyde for running for preselection in the relatively safe Liberal seat of Waite.
As debate about his amendment progressed, Hyde took the extraordinary step of standing up to declare a perceived conflict of interest, telling the meeting that a “political clause had been inserted into the amended motion”.
As a potential candidate in the forthcoming state election, he said he thought it best if he not contribute to the discussion.
After seeking advice from the council’s governance manager, Mick Petrovski, he absented himself.
This left Verschoor in a difficult spot when the vote was split.
As presiding member of the Adelaide Park Lands Authority, under state legislation she has a statutory responsibility to protect the parklands.
Expressing how she had always wanted to see no net loss of parklands if the arena were built, she said the prospect of high rise buildings being built in close proximity left her with no choice but to vote with Crs Martin, Anne Moran, Keiran Snape, Greg Mackie and Helen Donovan.
The outcome has left many observers wondering what will happen during council meetings if Hyde,is successful in winning the Waite preselection and quits the council next March.
It is unlikely there will be a by-election if he goes – council elections are due later in the year. On current numbers, most voting will likely end up 5-5, leaving Verschoor with her casting vote.
Political aspirations
Someone else running for preselection is Barossa-born former national television personality Kellie Sloane, who wants to take the seat previously occupied by former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Sloane, who started her journalistic career with the ABC in Adelaide, announced this week she was seeking preselection for Willoughby, vacated by Berejikilian when she resigned earlier this month to front an ICAC inquiry.
Sloane, 48, took to Twitter and Linked In on Wednesday to confirm speculation she was quitting as the chief executive of the national childrens’ preventive health organisation, Life Education Australia.
The mother of three children, she had been managing Life Education since moving on from Channel 9 in 2015, where she was a host of its popular shows, Today and Sunrise.
If successful, Sloane won’t have to go far for political advice.
Her husband is Adam Connolly, a principal adviser to former prime minister John Howard.
Not available
In the run-up to next year’s state election, various groups around town have been trying to organise debates between Premier Steven Marshall and Labor leader Peter Malinauskas. Business SA, the SA Press Club, the Property Council and the Master Builders Association all have plans to host a big showdown.
But so far, none has come to fruition, with the Premier not accepting any invites to date. The pair last went head-to-head at the SA Press Club last March.
Business SA chief executive Martin Haese confirmed to Off the Record that the organisation had been keen to host a debate but had been knocked back by the Premier’s office “at least for now’’.
“Certainly, the business community would expect the Premier and the Opposition Leader to have a good discussion about their business policies and the best way to do that is a debate,’’ Haese said.
Business SA is now hosting a function with Malinauskas on November 19 but Haese said the invitation to Marshall remained open for later in the year or early next.
Similarly, Master Builders chief Will Frogley said he had invited both leaders for a debate in front of his members. Malinauskas has accepted while Frogley said he was told that the Premier wouldn’t be making “diary decisions’’ until January.
Frogley said while the invitation was still open, his organisation would he holding its 100 Builders lunch at Adelaide Oval in early March at Adelaide Oval and Malinauskas would be given the stage to speak on his own.
Malinauskas told Off the Record he was “ready, willing and able to debate Steven Marshall about our state’s future’’.
A government spokesperson said that “consistent with all requests the Premier receives for meetings or events, each request for a debate will be considered’’.
Cashing in
Former Adelaide Crows ruckman Brad Moran recently celebrated a massive win, selling his company CitrusAd for $205m. But Moran isn’t the only one grinning.
Drakes Supermarkets director John-Paul Drake took to LinkedIn to sing the praises of Moran, and celebrate his own windfall.
JP explained that he met Moran back in 2016 when Drakes was searching for a new e-commerce platform.
That deal between the pair didn’t pan out, but when Moran came back with something bigger and better in the form of CitrusAd, JP dug deep.
“It took all of my personal savings but I knew I needed in,’’ he told his followers.
JP credits the success not to the idea – which was obviously a great one – but to Moran’s tenacity and passion, and his post is accompanied with a photo of the pair and friends enjoying a celebratory wine.
Like many start-up successes in Adelaide and nationally, Moran gave thanks to former Crows chairman Rob Chapman for some valuable early advice and introductions.
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