Sensational-Adelaide.com

Decision on Theo Maras’ 54-metre, $32m CBD development deferred
Simeon Thomas-Wilson, Urban Affairs Reporter, The Advertiser
May 25, 2018 3:16pm

HIGH-PROFILE Adelaide property developer Theo Maras’ final project is edging closer to getting the green light, despite the State Commission Assessment Panel deferring its decision.

Mr Maras’ $32 million high-end development on the southeastern corner of Hutt St and East Tce was recommend to be approved at Thursday’s SCAP meeting.

But it was deferred for the panel to consider some additional information provided by the applicant.

Mr Maras has teamed up with long-time friend James Arsenikakis for the 38-apartment development.

The additional information concerned a small encroachment issue with the plan.

Mr Maras told the Advertiser he believed the project was progressing smoothly.

“I’m very happy with the process,” he said. “I think it has been very good and very open.”

The final development — and the first residential one — by Mr Maras will see him together with his wife Helen moving into the top-floor penthouse of the tower.

It lies just around the corner from the East End where he made his name.

At 53.9m, the tower far exceeds the maximum height of 22m prescribed for the Capital City Zone.

But in the agenda for the meeting, SCAP consultant planner David Barone said the height of the proposal was justified by its design and its relationship to the area.

Also deferred at the meeting was an application by Starfish Developments to turn six allotments into 353 at a prime Port Adelaide location.

rev wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 10:32 am

I wonder what the hold up is for? What's the extra info they're gonna provide them?

The additional information concerned a small encroachment issue with the plan.

rev wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 10:32 am

I wonder what the hold up is for? What's the extra info they're gonna provide them?

GrowAdelaide wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 11:26 am

rev wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 10:32 am

I wonder what the hold up is for? What's the extra info they're gonna provide them?

There was a lot of neighbour resistance due to the impact on the little alleyway that runs between this and the more easterly building. In actual fact the project will lead to a widening of the lane, but also increased traffic. There were also concerns expressed about privacy and shadowing, which the developer covered off on in the proposal. My guess is they are going to provide some further clarity so as to further/completely placate the resistance.

Application Number: S10/35/2019
Type: Schedule 10
Lodged: 04/10/2019
Location: 2-6 Hutt Street, ADELAIDE SA 5000
Description: Construction of a sixteen (16) storey mixed use building
Status: Registered

Theo Maras lodges plans for apartment complex near Rymill Park
Celeste Villani, City Editor, The City
October 31, 2019 5:45pm
Subscriber only


A high-profile Adelaide developer wants to build a $27 million luxury apartment building overlooking Rymill Park as his “legacy” to Adelaide’s East End.

Rymill Park Apartments Pty Ltd – a collaboration between developer Theo Maras and James Arsenikakis – has lodged plans with the State Commission Assessment Panel for a 16-storey building with 38 apartments.

The development would crown Mr Maras’s career, which started in the 1970s, and continue his commitment to reviving the city’s East End.

“The design, the quality and everything about this project is high quality,” Mr Maras said.

“It is (my) long-term legacy.”

On the southeastern corner of Hutt St and East Tce, it would replace a two-level office building and include 56 parking spaces, a penthouse, conference room, common lounge and rooftop garden.

There would also be a cafe “more akin to a coffee/dessert bar than a restaurant in a traditional sense”.

Prices would range between $700,000 and about $4 million.

In a report to the panel, South Australian Government architect Kirsteen Mackay supported the applicant’s “aspiration” to deliver a high-quality residential development.

“The site’s key location within the City of Adelaide presents a rare opportunity and I am of the opinion that any development on this site has a responsibility to deliver a high benchmark for design,” she said.

Mr Maras has led the transformation of Adelaide’s East End and sits on the Eighty-Eight O’Connell Development Project Reference Group, an Adelaide City Council board.

His plans, originally deferred by the panel May 2018, are out for community consultation.

The State Commission Assessment Panel has been contacted for comment about when the plans will be assessed.

Theo Maras’ $27m apartment tower on edge of CBD challenged in court
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business ... 367e9cedb4

A high-profile neighbour of a proposed $27 million luxury apartment development in the city, which developer Theo Maras has dubbed his “legacy” to the East End, is trying to have its development approval thrown out.

Ray Khabbaz, who co-founded Copperpot Dips and went on to buy Australian Wholefoods in 2010 after selling Copperpot, has lodged a Supreme Court challenge to the 16-storey tower’s approval.

Mr Khabbaz, who lives on East Terrace, opposed the development when it went before the State Commission Assessment Panel in 2018, saying its “scale and intensity” wasn’t in keeping with the area, it overlooked his backyard, and would increase traffic and noise.

The development was approved by the SCAP on January 23 this year, and Mr Khabbaz lodged his court case the following day.

The development, on the southeastern corner of Hutt St and East Tce, is a collaboration between Mr Maras and James Arsenikakis.

It would include 38 apartments and would be 53.9m tall, which is well above the recommended 22m maximum building height for the subject land.

The SCAP said in its deliberation on the matter that development guidelines “provide support for development which exceeds the prescribed maximum height where it complements its context and anticipated city form, and embodies specified design and sustainability measures’’.

“A number of developments completed or recently approved within a wider precinct which includes the subject land are of a similar or slightly greater height than the proposed development,’’ the SCAP documents from 2018 say.

“Assuming some or all of the approved developments proceed, there will be built form of same or greater height to the south and west of the proposed development.’’

Mr Khabbaz, who declined to comment on the matter, wrote to the SCAP saying he’d lived on East Tce for 11 years, and he and his wife and intended to spend their retirement years there.

While they said they weren’t against the development of the site they, “do however have concerns that the scale and intensity of the proposal is such that it will significantly impact upon and detrimentally alter the current high level of amenity that is enjoyed by them and their neighbours and which makes this part of the city a desirable location for developments such as that proposed”.

Mr Khabbaz is asking the court for the approval to be quashed.

He is seeking orders that “declare that the development plan consent … is unlawful or invalid’’, and also a finding that the SCAP misread the development plan to contemplate approval of projects of that height.

Mr Maras said he was “disappointed” and “frustrated” that the court case had arisen, but he was convinced the project would set a new standard for apartment developments in the CBD.