Sensational-Adelaide.com

$55m office plan to replace Planet

07sep05

FORMER city nightspot The Planet could be demolished to make way for a $55 million office building.

Plans for the 73-79 Pirie Street site are for a 19-storey building including ground floor shops, two levels of underground car parking, and over 35,000 square metres of office space.

"It's always been in the wind. It has always been a development site," said the inner-city site's owner and managing director of the Adelaide Development Company, Fiona Roche.

"Now is the time to see what can and can't be done."

Lord Mayor Michael Harbison raised the development proposal at a council meeting on Monday night and said it was "great to see the confidence placed in the future of the city".

Later, Councillor Anne Moran said she had not yet seen the plans, but would welcome a "good" development. "That building has been left empty for a long time, so development would be welcomed and encouraged," she said.

Woods Bagot architects are working on the new building's design.

Adelaide Development Company said it would not release more detailed plans for the building while it considered "technical issues" like the number of parking spaces required.

Ms Roche said, if plans for the site were not financially viable, the site would most likely revert to an entertainment venue.

"But given the economy in SA is buzzing, if there was going to be the time it would be now," Ms Roche said.

"We won't start construction until we have tenants and we won't have tenants until we know what is able to be built," Ms Roche said.

chris wrote:And here I was suggesting people should attend the meeting to find out about the Tivoli project. Why wasn't this tower mentioned in the DAP agenda, and why hasn't it showed up in the development register?

And while we're at it, why did the Planet close down? That joint was teeny bopper central, can't beleive the owner couldn't make a mint out of it.