Theo Maras’ ‘legacy’ development on Hutt St can now go ahead after four-year legal process

Theo Maras’ vision to build a 16-storey apartment tower on the corner in the CBD can go ahead – after a court win against a disgruntled neighbour.

An artist’s impression of Theo Maras’ project at 2-6 Hutt St, Adelaide.

Theo Maras’s “legacy” development on the corner of Hutt St and Bartels Rd can now go ahead after a full sitting of the Supreme Court threw out an appeal from its neighbour – prominent businessman Ray Khabbaz.

Mr Maras first lodged plans for the luxury 53.9m apartment tower in 2018, with the State Commission Assessment Panel approving the project in January, 2020.

Mr Khabbaz, who is well-known in business circles as the founder of Copperpot Dips – which he sold in 2007 – lodged a legal challenge against the project the next day.

Mr Khabbaz lives next door to the planned project and argued the SCAP’s approval was invalid or unlawful, in part because the 53.9m design was more than double the recommended 22m maximum height for the site.

In approving the development, the SCAP said development guidelines had the scope to allow for a building taller than 22m if its height “complements its context and anticipated city form, and embodies specified design and sustainability measures’’.

The development is expected to have both residential and retail spaces.

Panel documents from 2018 said there were buildings of a similar height, either completed or approved, in the wider East End precinct.

Mr Khabbaz also argued former planning minister Stephan Knoll had erred in making interim changes to the Adelaide City Council development plan in June 2019 that allowed “over-height” buildings in circumstances where projects met benchmarks such as excellent design and sustainability measures.

Justice Greg Parker, in a ruling handed down in February last year, refused to quash the approval, dismissing all Mr Khabbaz’s grounds of appeal, however Mr Khabbaz’s lawyers then lodged an appeal to the Full Court of the Supreme Court, comprising three judges.

This week all three of the Full Court judges dismissed Mr Khabbaz’s appeal.

Mr Maras told The Advertiser he was pleased with the outcome.

“Of course I’m happy that eventually after many years of delay we are able to proceed with a development that’s now been approved four times,’’ he said.

The project was originally costed at about $27m.

Adelaide developer Theo Maras.

Mr Maras, who has extensive property holdings in the city’s East End and has been a developer of note in Adelaide since the 1970s, has previously described the project as his “long-term legacy’’.

The design, the quality and everything about this project is high quality,” Mr Maras said at the time the project’s plans were first lodged.

Mr Khabbaz declined to comment. He will be liable for costs in the matter.

Originally published as Theo Maras’ ‘legacy’ development on Hutt St can now go ahead after four-year legal process