Wakefield Street attracts the celebrities

This ground breaking development was once home to radio presenter Jodie Blewett, and we were pretty excited a couple of years ago when we leased one of the apartments to 2 of the stars from McLeod's Daughters - Matt Passmore and Luke Jacobz.

Then we sold an apartment in the building to Amber Petty, another radio personality, and we thought that was pretty cool. But when Princess Mary visited Amber and stayed over, there was so much public attention with the national press gathered around the foyer area that we don't think it can ever be topped!

We have just sold one of the top level apartments for well in excess of $800,000, and will have 2 more for sale very soon. Now we just have to figure out how to include "Danish royalty stayed here" into our advertising. Just kidding!

New York! New York!

If any of our readers or their friends are moving to New York they should check out this apartment.

It's being sold by a lovely New York couple who own one of the apartments that we manage in the Conservatory. They are moving to Adelaide to live in the near future so now is the time to talk a deal with their New York agent!

http://www.barakny.com/listing_details.aspx?listingid=785571

City Housing Diversity

We spend a lot of time around high-quality modern apartment and townhouse buildings in the Square Mile during the normal course of our business of developing, selling and leasing our clients' properties. However, the city also has a long history of providing accommodation to people that the private property market can't accommodate, particularly lower income groups of all ages. We think this is important because a city's vitality depends on the diversity of its residents.

One of the most recent housing initiatives is "Common Ground Adelaide Ltd". Set up by the SA government and private sponsors, this organisation aims to provide good quality affordable rental housing to low income people and those at risk of homelessness. It mirrors the not for profit common ground project in New York founded by former Adelaide "thinker in residence" Rosanne Haggerty.

Their first project was completed in November 2007 and is known as "Common Ground on Franklin". It consists of 39 units (15 one bed and 21 studios) built above the central bus station.

The second project rapidly nearing completion is the re-habilitation and extension of a heritage listed building in Light Square which will contain 60 self contained apartments, Common Ground's head office, communal facilities, and health/welfare/vocational support services for residents.

Miami Car Park - 111 Lincoln Road

There are many examples of how a piece of architecture (usually museums/art galleries or other institutional buildings) can lift the profile of a city in some significant way. This Miami Florida building by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron demonstrates that even the humble car-park can be a "show-stopper".

It contains 330 carparks with 11 shops and 3 restaurants at ground level, with more shopping on the fifth floor and a roof top restaurant.

Compare it with our Central Market car-park, and perhaps we could also use an inspirational piece of architecture to add another dimension to this cosmoplitan precinct - it would be a magnet for tourists.

Mixed Use Buildings

It doesn't seem that long ago when Peter was advising the owners of Ruthven Mansions at 15 to 27 Pulteney Street on the feasibility of selling off the apartments on separate strata titles while having a retail arcade in separate ownership at ground level. This all seemed so novel (not to mention risky) back in 1993!

Ruthven Mansions was built in 1911 and was a very early venture in apartment living in the City of Adelaide. This obviously fell out of fashion it later became home to the Government Chest Clinic in 1953 and was then refurbished in 1980 by architect John Chappel to operate as an apartment hotel.

Now mixed use buildings are quite common place, because multiple uses are often the most economic use of expensive city land. According to the Adelaide City Council the city population in 2010 is 21,000 and forecast to increase by another 20,130 over the next 21 years. This means that many more mixed use buildings are going to be built and we hope that they involve some new and exciting architecture!

Click on these links for more information on real life examples of mixed use buildings in the city:

223 North Terrace

23 King William Street

Mixed Use Building - 223 North Terrace

Construction on this building commenced in 1969 as a next door carpark for the South Australian department store John Martins. The iconic store closed in 1998, but the North Terrace car park remained to service the new David Jones store which opened in its place.

The Haywards, a wealthy merchant family that owned "Johnnies" had originally planned to build an international hotel on the rooftop of the carpark. The structure was designed with additional reinforcement to take the extra weight, and the lift shafts were strategically positioned so that they could be extended.

In 2001, Buchan Lee in consortium acquired the air rights above the car park and developed the "Martin Towers" apartment project, which later became known as "223 North Terrace". Construction of the 2 apartment buildings (the "North Tower" and "South Tower") commenced in 2003. The transfer zone of the existing carpark roof between the 2 buildings was developed into a recreational area with a lap pool, spa, sauna, gym and skygarden while the sub-basement of the carpark was set aside for apartment resident parking.

In addition to the carpark and apartment mix, the third use of the building is retail shopping, with many shops in the ground floor arcade joining Rundle Mall, as well as several fronting to Charles Street and North Terrace.

Mixed Use Building - 23 King William Street

This is a heritage listed building which was built for the AMP Society in 1936 and was completely refurbished and converted a couple of years ago from its office use into studio, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments focussing on our growing international student market. Re-branded as UV Apartments (University Village), the building also contains 4 common area facilities incorporating TV lounge, reading room, study room and a games room.

The ground level is mostly taken up with an interesting tea room, restaurant and martini bar called Saldechin.