#VISION Liberal's railyard plan: new stadium & entertainment

[Port Adelaide Fan]

Article :

A MULTIPURPOSE stadium, relocation of the Keswick rail terminal and an entertainment boulevard are centrepieces of the Liberal Party's vision for the city.

The site - earmarked by the Rann Government for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital - will be transformed under the plan, unveiled by Opposition leader Isobel Redmond during a keynote speech at a business lunch today.

Other proposals include:

DEMOLITION of AAMI Stadium, with high-density apartment housing to be built on the site.

SALE of the velodrome land at Gepps Cross, with high-density apartment style housing to be built.

CONVERSION of the existing Keswich railway yards into high-density apartment style housing.

In the first stage of the Torrens riverside development, there will be a 50,000-seat multipurpose undercover sports stadium, riverside cafes and shops.

Ms Redmond says the plan will revitalise the city centre and put Adelaide on the map as a vibrant and modern place to live.

She says the relocation of the existing interstate train terminal at Keswick will end the farcical situation where interstate travellers end their journey in an industrial area with no transport to the city.

Later stages will include a new entertainment centre, more convention space and the relocation of the casino to the precinct.

"This would free up the existing Adelaide railway station for other uses such as a boutique hotel or museum," Ms Redmond said in a speech to business leaders.

She said that "for too long Adelaide has been regarded as a backwater where nothing ever changes, this development will once again make this city proud".

Ms Redmond said it was anticipated the project would be funded through a combination of government and private sector money.

"A significant portion of the funding for the project will be generated by the sale of government land," Ms Redmond said.

The Riverside Development Authority will be established in the first term of a Redmond Liberal government to take control of the area and co-ordinate development and construction.

Ms Redmond said the entire project would be built to the highest standard of energy efficiency with solar energy and water saving initiatives throughout the site.

Adelaide now

Flythroughs:

[SRW]

Lolz at that 'artists' impression'.

[Briggzy_03]

What the sweet crap is that? Two orange brick walls on either side of the Torrens with a cut and paste tower that is being built in Dubai.

I'm a river-side precinct supporter but the liberals seriously need a better designer team. Even though it's just a concept, they do need to give a good first impression.

[Briggzy_03]

Btw videos of the plans:

Riverside precinct - http://player.video.news.com.au/adelaid ... _zN16jeA8F

West lakes, Keswick, Gepps Cross redevelopment - http://player.video.news.com.au/adelaid ... YL_EJURIg_

[kenget]

If only Labor had this same vision

[Howie]

First flythrough is up...

[Waewick]

ok stupid question of the year

the removal of the railyards from the area isn't a removal of all the railway lines there, the station remains a station yeah?

[Howie]

My understanding is that where the tower is, there's an underground station for the precinct visitors and then from there the current Adelaide Railway station.

[Waewick]

Thanks, that's what I thought. I got slightly confused reading Mr Ranns staffers talking about moving rail out of the area on congesting the place with Trams.

[Splashmo]

Although I cringed a little bit at the "country club-style development" part of the fly-through, overall the plan is very impressive, save for the poor design and mock-up.

The Libs obviously feel as though it can be funded with the sale of AAMI and the other land. So they want to give us all this and a "new" hospital - while Foley can cry about how it couldn't possibly be afforded, the fact is that Labor is coming up short without a stadium, and if the AdelaideNow poll is anything to go by, people are loving this.

[Aidan]

Struth, what a disappointment! 'Tis hard to tell which party's vision for the railyards is worse

The wrong kind of stadium (and without the redeeming frog cake aesthetics), an attempt to cram the interstate trains into a subsurface facility far too small, many buildings extremely inappropriate for the parklands location, and replacing perfectly good suburban facilities with high density housing.

Don't any politicians want development appropriate for the location?

[Paulns]

Now thats what I'm talikin about!!!! Mock it if you like, but realise that this is just a concept, an idea and a beginning but atleast, finally Adelaide has a REAL vision for the future.

[Mpol]

On one hand I want light rail in Adelaide.

On the other, if these proposals were better... I AM ALL FOR IT! And the West Lakes vision would not only help that strip but the surounding suburbs.

I am excited as this is a step forward... but this CAN be improved. And what are the organce things along the Torrens? Apartments?

And OMG what are they coing to do to the Entertainment Centre? Will we even have one?

I am excited but unsure... I just showed mum the proposals and agree... I hope those apartment blocks look very different. Though I DO love the taller buildings for the Entertainment Centre site... BLAH!

[Prince George]

"For too long Adelaide has been considered a backwater" drones the monotone voice, chanting that same trite line that's been heard I-don't-know-how-often before. But what they show us is a backwater plan. Stadiums, conference facilities, casinos, hotels, it's like a grab-bag of the ideas that desparate towns cling to.

Visions are so dispensable. Spend a weekend playing around with Google SketchUp, draw up a few shapes and *bingo* vision. What of any of these visions could you count on actually happening? Obviously nothing has actually gone beyond the random drawing stage and the voice-over in the video (which was only marginally more animated sounding than my doormat) is rife with coulds and shoulds. These are like serving suggestions on the cereal box; Kellogs don't promise strawberries in the Cornflakes, neither are we promised anything in these vision statements (beyond perhaps the stadium). Is there any point criticising any of it's contents, when none of it is likely to be real?

But for that caveat I will say this: the parts of the vision relating to Gepps Cross and West Lake shows high density housing, but for the life of me I can't see a transit link to them. They are like TODs without the transit, which I guess just makes them OD. So either they remain car dependent, or we're building new transit links there. And especially in the case of Gepps Cross, the extra expense rather consumes any revenue that we suppose may be raised by selling the land for development.

[frank1]

nice looking plan, but just tow flaws..how are they going to build those towers on the parklands? the nimby's would go nuts and not let it happen, especially the preservation park lands society. secondly, isn't AMMI stadium owned by SANFL? if so how will the libs sell it?