Adelaide’s next gen skyline as more student towers approved
Plans to knock “The Block” on Hindmarsh Square and Currie Street’s Duke of York Hotel to build student accommodation towers were approved this week.
A 35-storey student accommodation tower, with a ground floor shop and café will replace the Pulteney Street and Hindmarsh Square building that is home to record store Clarity and popular wine bar LOC.
A 33-storey tower will replace the historic Duke of York Hotel, with 570 beds and a café.
Both developments were granted planning consent by the State Commission Assessment Panel on Wednesday, and the build must “substantially commence” within two years.
The two towers join the recently approved $400m student accommodation at North Terrace’s Trinity Church site, which is due to be completed by April 2028.
Around the corner from Hindmarsh Square, works are underway for the 29-storey student accommodation tower behind the Crown & Anchor Hotel – the biggest development story of 2024.
The Block
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The 35-storey tower will have 480 student beds, a 144-square-metre shop and 43-square-metre cafe space on the ground floor, and a mezzanine with a student library, meeting spaces and 64 bike storage spaces.
Pulteney Street Student Accommodation Pty Ltd is developing the Block site with their new student-facing brand, WRAP Student Living, which stands for work, rest and play.
The brand brings together Damien Ellis, director of Adelaide development company Intro, construction firm BESIX Watpac CFO Peter Bergin and student accommodation group Campus Estates founder and director Jon Whittle.
Intro counts 266 North Terrace and the Monarto Safari Park visitor centre as projects, while Campus Estates is Sydney-based with student accommodation projects across Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
The Block is currently a two-storey 1960s commercial building that features downstairs retail and hospitality tenants, including LOC Bottle Bar, Clarity, and Nonna & I.
It used to include Carton Deli, which shut its doors on August 7, citing “the combination of a slow down in trade combined with a looming redevelopment that we have not been given a timeline of”.
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KOCO Korean Colour Hair Salon also used to reside on the ground floor, but moved to a Grenfell Street location, across from the Adelaide Arcade, in June.
The Block became a micro precinct for creatives in the city’s east end after LOC’s Olivia Moore moved into the space in 2020 with the help of Renew Adelaide.
In 2024, after tenants were made aware that the property was up for sale, some office tenants chose to move out of the space, including Renew Adelaide, which is now located in Pirie Street’s Epworth building.
The Block is still home to anchor tenant Clarity, who in 2021 leased the vacant 100sqm retail space next door to expand, and is a drawcard for musicians and punters.
The Duke
Development consultants Future Urban, on behalf of Victorian property developers TAL GP Projects, lodged the plans for the 33-storey tower.
Communal spaces for students, including kitchens, laundry facilities, a gym and “various games and media rooms”, will be spread across the ground level, first floor and rooftop.
The site, at 82-86 Currie Street, is currently home to the Duke of York Hotel, a local heritage-listed structure built in 1857 that is still a working pub.
The pub’s rear additions and beer garden will be demolished to make way for the tower.
In September, the developer told InDaily that a “majority” of the Duke of York’s heritage-listed façade will be retained. This includes the street facing section of the pub, its eastern façade and a “portion” of its western side.
