Property tycoon Lang Walker about to reveal tenants for $500m Festival Plaza in Adelaide

PROPERTY tycoon Lang Walker is vowing work is about to get fully underway on his $500 million Festival Plaza project after five years of planning and negotiation.

NEW Renders - Festival Plaza development planned for Adelaide by Walker Corp.

PROPERTY tycoon Lang Walker has declared that work is about to get fully underway on his $500 million Festival Plaza project after five years of planning and negotiation.

Moving to defuse speculation the landmark development might not start for another six years, Mr Walker told The Advertiser talks were being held with potential tenants for a 23-storey office tower behind Parliament House.

These included state and federal government departments and private sector firms including financial services, telecommunications, legal, accounting and resources companies.

A formal announcement is expected within weeks.

Mr Walker’s assertion comes just before the expected release of an Auditor-General’s inquiry into the Festival Plaza deal, the report of which The Advertiser yesterday was told was in the final stages.

NEW Renders — Festival Plaza development planned for Adelaide by Walker Corp.

Mr Walker, the chairman of Walker Corporation, said Festival Plaza would create a dynamic arts and entertainment centre linking Adelaide Oval, the railway station, casino, Festival Centre and Riverbank.

“We are delighted to get fully under way with this project after five years of hard work, consisting of international research, the creation of project concepts and plans, preparatory works and the negotiation of complex agreements between all involved parties,” he said, in a written statement to The Advertiser.

“The concept is based on our successful and proven mixed-use approach to revitalise the city centre, which will become a major drawcard for Adelaide and attract major national and international businesses, tourists and locals.”

NEW Renders - Festival Plaza development planned for Adelaide by Walker Corp.

Auditor-General Andrew Richardson is set to deliver a report on the Festival Plaza deal after a year of delay due to factors including discussions with the Independent Commission Against Corruption about how to handle the probe.

Walker Corp in late 2012 won exclusive rights to develop the Festival Centre car park and plaza and in November last year secured Development Assessment Commission approval for the office tower.

The tower was pitched as 27 storeys but the company is now describing a 23-storey building, delivering about 40,000 sqm of office space and a 4000 sqm premium retail and entertainment precinct — the latter within a three-level complex fronting the plaza.

Walker Corp says construction of a five-level underground carpark, now under way, is expected to be finished by 2019 and the tower/retail then will take two years.