Student housing building with almost 800 beds rising in the West End of the Adelaide CBD

A STUDENT accommodation building rising in Adelaide’s West End will have more beds than any other in town and the largest green wall in Australia, its builder says.

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A STUDENT accommodation building rising in Adelaide’s West End will have more beds than any other in town and the largest green wall in Australia, its builder says.

Local builder Synergy Construct is the lead contractor on the $80 million, 772-bed project for Singaporean developer Wee Hur.

The 17-storey building is on Gray St, south of Currie St, just a stone’s throw from UniSA’s City West campus.

Large portions of the east and west sides of the 59m tower will be covered in a green wall measuring 1764sq m.

The 18-month project, set to finish in April next year, is employing 300 people.

“It’s our largest project to date and taking our business to a major project level, which is pretty exciting,” Synergy Construct business director Michael Gramazio said.

“This is our first $50 million (plus) project, which is a big deal for us.

An artist’s impression of the new student accommodation building on Gray St, Adelaide CBD.

“It’s the largest green wall in Australia.”

Local architects Brown Falconer are another partner on the project, which will include 533 studio apartments.

A further 192 beds will be in six-bed “clusters”, where students will have their own bedrooms and share kitchen, lounge and bathroom facilities.

The rest will be twin and disability-compliant rooms.

Operator UniLodge will run the completed building, which will also have a rooftop garden and 104 bicycle parking spaces.

The new $100 million Urbanest/Adelaide University student housing tower on North Tce is billed as having 699 beds.

Earlier this month The ­Advertiser revealed plans by developer Global Student Accommodation for a $60 million, 34-storey building on the corner of North Tce and Frome Rd, which would have 680 beds. That project requires demolition of the 1950s First Church of Christ Scientist building, after attempts to have it state heritage listed failed last year.

By comparison, the student housing project that has attracted the most attention in recent times, Atira’s $32 million Waymouth St development dubbed Adelaide’s “ugliest” building, has a relatively modest 428 beds.

Through a $700 million fund, Wee Hur is developing sites with a total of 3250 student beds across Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, and is looking to buy more sites in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. It has a goal of 5000 beds across the country in order to build a portfolio worth more than $1 billion.

Synergy previous built the 24-storey office building at 115 King William St, near the Waymouth St intersection.