Gurner, Kennard to redevelop ex-Adelaide Mail Centre
Sam Kennard is seeking to redevelop the former Adelaide Mail Centre into a $1.25 billion mixed-use village with a hotel, offices, shops and more than 750 apartments.
The Kennards Self Storage director, who paid the federal government $40.6 million for the 1.7924 hectare CBD block in 2020, will partner with Melbourne developer Gurner to design and market the project.
It would be the first South Australian venture for the developer, headed by Tim Gurner, which has also this year announced maiden complexes at Geelong, in Victoria, Parramatta in western Sydney and Perth’s Nedlands.
An application is expected to be lodged before the end of the year.
City changing project: Kennard
As part of the proposal, an existing five level, 23,872 square metre ex-mailing centre will be repurposed into an office, also to be Kennards’ South Australian headquarters.
The balance of the parcel at 237 Gouger Street, also with frontage to Blenheim and Grote, will make way for four towers,
“When we..purchased the site…we had seven existing locations in Adelaide but had been searching for the right CBD location for a number of years,” Mr Kennard said.
“Originally we had identified an opportunity to repurpose the existing building into self-storage and planned to subdivide and sell the surplus land, but COVID allowed us the time to take pause and reflect, and we soon realised the site had the potential to become a city changing project,” he added (story continues below).
The executive approached Gurner, which in Melbourne has a track record of co-developing sites with land owners.
“This is a very significant transaction in terms of scale and value in the Adelaide market, which reflects the confidence we have in…its fundamentals,” Mr Gurner said.
“We’ll be creating something very ambitious, …that hasn’t been done before in this sector,” he added.
“The main focus of this city-changing site will be a transformative public realm, that will become a key attraction for Adelaide CBD,” according to the executive.
“As we do with all our projects, we’ll be prioritising leading amenities for residents – they’ll have access to entertainment, retail and co-working spaces, as well as our signature Private Club offering”.
Colliers’ Paul Van-Reesema, Justin Hazell and Alistair Mackie sold the property to Kennard with an 18 month leaseback to Australia Post.
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