Renewal SA seeks partner for Lot Fourteen innovation centre
Renewal SA is seeking a development and investment partner to replace part of the seven hectare former Royal Adelaide Hospital with a c16-storey, 35,000 square metre mixed-use commercial building to be known as the Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre (EIC).
The tower is anticipated to be the flagship of the innovation precinct known as Lot Fourteen – the name Colonel William Light gave to the block at the north east tip of Adelaide’s CBD in his original 1837 city plan.
Subject to a commitment by the state government, it will include a 2500 sqm Innovation Hub on its ground and first floor – $20 million of which will be paid for by the Morrison administration.
The upper levels would be available for private sector tenants.
The site area allocated for the EIC is 4800 sqm.
Speed is critical: Renewal SA
Premier Steven Marshall today launched an expressions of interest campaign, which will be conducted by Renewal SA, seeking an experienced partner to design, finance, construct and own the office.
The government wants that party to find tenants, too.
Ideally, building could start in the second quarter of 2021.
“Speed is critical, so the state government will provide a fully costed commercial design scheme that could quickly be progressed to meet the requirements of interested tenants including the Australian government, university sector and global defence and technology companies,” a Renewal SA spokesperson said.
Colliers International South Australian chief executive office, James Young, who is overseeing the EOI, added “businesses are currently looking for the unique combination offered by Lot Fourteen and the flagship EIC – an unbeatable city location and co-location with other entrepreneurs and leading-edge researchers” (story continues below).
Since March, the executive said, the major source of tenant inquiry for space at the village has come from within the IT space – which he said bodes well for the proposed office.
“This is an extremely exciting project for South Australia which is proving itself as a quality global choice for investment and innovation”.
Lot Fourteen so far
Royal Adelaide Hospital moved out of the site making way for Lot Fourteen in 2017.
Since then, 36 tenant businesses have moved into refurbished historic low-rise structures within the business park – including the federal government’s Australian Space Centre and Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre and the University of Adelaide’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning.
Chamonix IT Consulting, Inovor Technologies, Life Whisperer, Myriota, Neumann Space, Presagen, The Stone & Chalk Startup Hub (which also has a base at Melbourne’s Docklands) and MIT Living Lab are others.
Renewal SA said at least 40 start-ups call the pocket home, too.
Several other buildings are mooted as part of the urban renewal project (over the past 18 months the government has been demolishing obsolete ex-hospital buildings on land set to make way for them including at what might be considered Lot Fourteen’s most valuable corner, abutting Adelaide Botanic Gardens and overlooking Karrawirra Parri/the Torrens River).
Upon completion in about 10 years, some 6000 people are expected will work within the precinct.
