New look North Adelaide: Millions for Melbourne Street as major shopping precinct sold
North Adelaide’s transformation is well underway, with Melbourne Street in line for a multimillion-dollar facelift and an O’Connell Street shopping hub snapped up by a local property tycoon.
Commercial real estate is becoming a “hotly contested” commodity as a flurry of work continues in North Adelaide, the latest involving new designs revealed for a $15m upgrade to a tired-looking Melbourne Street.
Two options were floated by the Adelaide City Council this week with the first focused on creating a “village heart” and the second targeting the main strip east of Jerningham Street and stretching to West Pallant Street.
The options came hot on the heels of news that Perth-based Greenpool Capital and an ASX-listed investment fund sold the North Adelaide Village on O’Connell Street to a local private investor for an undisclosed sale price.
CBRE commercial real estate group brokered the deal for the 9300-square-metre shopping complex, which was bought by local property investor Richard Antunes.
Antunes, via Antunes Group, owns several retail centres in Adelaide, including Henley Square Pavilion, Port Mall, Prospect Centre, and Regency Centre.
You might like
The company also worked on the H20 and Baju Apartments project, the custom-built Woodville Mental Health facility, and the Aberfeldy Townhouses project.
North Adelaide Village’s anchor tenant, Romeo’s Foodland, has a lease until 2033 and sits alongside a Goodlife Gym, 32 other shops and seven office tenancies.
Sherley said centres like North Adelaide Village were “hotly contested commodities”, particularly after the recent opening of the luxury apartment block 88 O’Connell and the expected upgrade of the North Adelaide Golf Course.
In nearby Melbourne Street, some upgrade works like new street furniture, extending footpaths, improving lighting and installing planter boxes began earlier this year, funded by a $1 million grant from the state government.
Subscribe for updates
Now more works were being planned, with one councillor describing the new designs as having a “light touch” after they were unveiled at the Adelaide City Council’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday night.
“Depending on what render you’re looking at in the options, some of them do have a very light touch, like it’s really just reinstating, repaving what we have now,” Councillor Eleanor Freeman said.
“I really believe that a main street and the millions of dollars they cost have to actually make improvements, which I’m sure, judging by the words it will, it’s just kind of hard to tell at the moment.”
North Adelaide Councillor Mary Couros says the plans moving forward must benefit traders along the entire street.
“A lot of feedback that I get is that [Melbourne Street] is dark, it’s not appealing at night, and it doesn’t make them want to walk all the way up to our businesses that are up on the street,” Couros says.
“This is just the start of it, but if you just want my opinion on option one, option two, I can’t choose. They want both, and I’m speaking for the people, they would want a village heart and they want the main street upgraded.”
Melbourne Street’s new look is expected by 2028, but plans would still need to be approved by the council, with more detailed designs expected next year.
“This upgrade is well understood and as far as the locals are concerned, overdue,” North Adelaide Councillor Philip Martin says.
