Turn the Premier’s home – the State Administration Centre – into Adelaide CBD apartments | Paul Starick

If the Premier wants to allow older CBD towers to be retrofitted for apartment living, there’s one old, grey building he should look at first, writes Paul Starick.

The first dowdy office tower that should be recommissioned for housing by Treasurer Stephen Mullighan is the relic he shares with Premier Peter Malinauskas.

The Treasurer told The Advertiser’s agenda-setting Housing Forum on Wednesday that the present Adelaide City Council population of 25,000 was “in this day and age – absolutely laughable” and urged a doubling in the next 10-15 years.

To enable this, Mr Mullighan said the government was willing to change the building code to open new accommodation options, such as repurposing and retrofitting the “growing tail of B-grade, C-grade and D-grade buildings”.

Property industry figures say the Victoria Square’s State Administration Centre, which houses the offices of the Premier, Treasurer and their departments, is probably a C-plus-grade building.

Therefore, the tower with a name and appearance befitting the Soviet era is a prime candidate for repurposing or retrofitting into housing.

State Admin building

August 30, 2022: Premier Peter Malinauskas in his office at the State Administration Building. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Crucially, there is a well-situated office tower under construction that would be much more suitable, if the high-powered duo can deal with a predictable public backlash accusing politicians of choosing ivory towers for themselves. (In reality, most political leaders fear public opprobrium about the trappings of their offices and, quite often, are frugal types.)

Festival Tower is a 27-storey building under construction just to the north of state parliament. Flinders University is the anchor tenant. The torturous saga of its approval, which started in 2012 when Sydney tycoon Lang Walker was awarded exclusive rights to redevelop the precinct, does not detract from the building’s obvious suitability for the Premier and Treasurer. In real estate, it’s about location, location and location.

An artist's impression of the Flinders University branding on the North Terrace-facing side of the Festival Tower being built by Walker Corporation in the Riverbank precinct. State parliament is to the right. Picture supplied by Walker Corporation and Flinders University

In the interests of efficiency and the state’s image, the Premier and Treasurer should have modern, prestigious offices, in a location that showcases Adelaide’s splendour. They don’t need luxury or largesse – just offices fit for leaders of a modern, prosperous, democratic state.

Most importantly, the Riverbank location next to the parliament just makes sense, for obvious reasons. The decision to approve a tower on the public Plaza was controversial but, having been made, the co-location benefits should be recognised and capitalised upon.

Importantly, MPs already use the five-level, 1646-space underground carpark that also services the Adelaide Festival Centre and Casino.

The state parliament is a charming and historic building. But the offices are poky, overcrowded and antiquated. Few business leaders would consider them suitable for their own digs – let alone fit for someone leading the state.

The same is true of the State Administration Centre. The building was constructed in 1967 and opened in 1968 and, in a 1987 Advertiser report, was branded as unfit by a government office accommodation committee.

Major upgrading was needed even then, the committee declared, if the Premier’s office was to remain there long-term. Despite renovations and refits, it’s hard to mask the building’s age.

Externally and internally, it reminds this author of Berlin’s Stasi Museum, which was erected in 1960-61 as the offices of Erich Mielke, the long-term East German State Security Minister. It featured in the 2006 movie The Lives of Others. The grey metal window frames in the Premier’s office evoke this brutalist architecture.

The Stasi Museum in Berlin. The building has been gradually transformed into a memorial, museum and archive for posterity. (AAP Image/Diana Plater)

Property Council state executive director Daniel Gannon agrees with Mr Mullighan that ageing office buildings can be repurposed.

“Almost 70 per cent of Adelaide’s commercial office buildings are more than 30 years old – and that spells opportunity for government and industry. But age shouldn’t mean that an office building has no use anymore – there could be a greater residential purpose during this current supply crisis,” he said.

But Mr Gannon, previously an adviser to former Liberal leader Steven Marshall, endorses existing prime buildings, including Westpac House or Grenfell St’s “Black Stump”.

“While it’s important to see a pipeline of new commercial buildings under construction and underpinned by government tenancy agreements, we also need to see public and private tenants embracing prime existing buildings too,” he said.

The previous Labor government tried to sell the State Administration Centre in a $210m deal and, in late 2017, conceded failure and pulled the plug. It’s probably time for another go.

Ahead of council elections starting next month, now is the right time to debate substantial change that can kickstart Adelaide’s CBD out of a pandemic-induced malaise.

Originally published as Turn the Premier’s home – the State Administration Centre – into Adelaide CBD apartments | Paul Starick