Rau puts out call to developers for old RAH site
The Weatherill Government will today call for future expressions of interest from private developers in a seven hectare “mixed-use” precinct on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site.
Renewal SA’s Urban Renewal Prospectus will be distributed to potential stakeholders this afternoon, outlining “a range of key urban renewal sites and expected release dates within the next year”.
Most significant, and politically-sensitive, is the RAH site, billed as “symbolic of the new Adelaide”, a CBD “gateway” site containing “a number of state heritage buildings as part of a total floor area of approximately 275,000 square metres”.
But it remains unclear just what proportion of that area will be dedicated to a much-hyped $85 million new high school, with Planning Minister John Rau telling InDaily: “The answer to that is ‘I don’t know’”.
“The RAH is one of the more complex sites,” he said.
“We’ve already master-planned that site in terms of the physical development of the site, (and) in terms of the functional part of it, it’s pretty clear what we’re looking for – we’re looking for something that would retain economic activity and people in the east end.”
He said that would involve “a mix of cultural things, educational things and commercial things, and possibly some residential, depending on exactly what the proposals are”.
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“We have reasonably serious expectations of outcomes, so we’d expect there to be some pretty complex proposals put forward and serious bidders in there – not necessarily just local SA companies.”
He said plans for the high school, which have been under a cloud in recent weeks, were “something we’re finalising at the moment”.
“That will all be clear when we go out to expressions of interest very soon,” he said.
But it appears the much-vaunted investment will not be pride of place on the marquee site, with the minister suggesting it will comprise “one of those buildings” on the site.
“It was always envisaged that the high school development wouldn’t mean we’d demolish the whole of the hospital site,” he said.
It appears too that open space for ovals or sporting precincts will be in short supply, Rau noting “they’re immediately adjacent the Botanic Gardens and university sports facilities … so it’s not like there’s a lack of open space”.
In a covering letter to the prospectus – which also includes 6.5 hectares of residential development to be sold off from the revamped Parks Community Centre and 7.5 hectares from the old Fort Largs Police Academy – Rau tells prospective investors the “progressive land release program will be conducted through a public tender process via a series of requests for Expressions of Interest to ensure that the best value solution can be competitively identified for each site”.
“I encourage you to consider showing your interest in these opportunities as they become available,” he writes.
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The minister said the prospectus was “an indication Renewal SA has finally got its act together and is getting stuff out the door”.
“Renewal SA was set up to do this sort of work some time ago, and for whatever reason nothing much happened,” he said.
He said he told Premier Jay Weatherill before last year’s election that if Labor was returned “I’d really like to be given an opportunity to try and get Renewal SA to work properly”.
“I was frustrated as Planning Minister that stuff was handed over to Renewal SA, things would go in there and nothing would come out the back end,” he said, insisting that there has since been “quite a lot of change” and, indeed, renewal, within Renewal SA.
“It’s the first time that Renewal SA has ever put out a document listing all the projects they’ve got coming up, and when they’re coming up,” he said.
“I’ve told them from the beginning ‘I want to make sure you’re doing what you were always intended to do’, which is showing the business community Renewal SA is somebody they want to talk to, rather than someone that doesn’t provide them with a lot of assistance.”
The prospectus contains significant parcels of land in Oakden (44ha), Seaford Meadows (43ha) and Port Adelaide (40ha), which Rau says represent among the last of the state’s diminishing broadacre holdings.
“There won’t be many more of those sorts of things,” he said, noting that residential development in those areas would make “a modest contribution to what we need to put in” in terms of urban infill.
“A lot of it is in the right places, and a lot of it I hope will provide an opportunity for people to see that the sort of infill I’m talking about can happen relatively close to the city,” he said.
“Unfortunately people get images of Kowloon or something in their heads and don’t get what I’m talking about.”
Schools closed as part of Labor’s Rann-era amalgamations into so-called “super-schools” are also included, with the Enfield High, Davoren Park Primary and Smithfield Plains Primary sites either on the market or set for release within the year.
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