Edit by AtD: Merged this old thread from Dec '03 with the new one. This is the only (decent) post from the old thread.

The old Santos Building, located at 39 Grenfell Street is to be converted into 90 apartments, designed for students.

There apartments will be located between levels 2-11.

There will be 9 apartments per floor, and when completed the building will have a total of 300 bedrooms.

The ground and first floor will be shops and offices, and there is a posibility of a police station on the ground floor.

This project has already been aproved by the ACC, and work is expected to commence next year.

The old Santos Building was opened in 1980, and it has been vacant since the mid-nineties.

No major alterations are proposed for the façade.

Another office building is set to be redeveloped into apartments, at 12-20 McHenry Street, a laneway on Gawler place, near Pirie Street.

I can't for the life of me figure out which building this is. Anyone?

Saw that too.

Have absolutely no idea.

It's most likely the old SANTOS building. I remember there's a thread about the conversion of this building into student accomodation somewhere on the SA forum.

excellent trend, old offices converted to resis giving the CBD more vibrancy and creating greater market demand for new office developments :)
The 20 storey tax tower is complete now and there's 126 new apartments so a building with 99 apartments can't be that much smaller, whatever it is

Yesterdays tiser had something about an 11 storey building on or near grenfell st that was being converted into 99 apartments. It's been sitting empty for years. Can't remember other details but.

I had a look around today, and this is the only possible candidate.

Would be an ideal location if you lworked for Telstra, commonwealth bank, ANZ etc. 3 minute commute :)

http://smicik.customer.netspace.net.au/santos1.jpg

http://smicik.customer.netspace.net.au/santos2.jpg

http://smicik.customer.netspace.net.au/santos3.jpg

Here's hoping it's more an Air Apartments redevelopment than old Tax Building.

true, can't see any noticeable external changes to the tax bldg, too bad

pity you couldn't own a car there...

pity you couldn't own a car there...

Yes, you can. There's an underground car park, access from mchenry st.

There's a brief note on it in this week's ACM.

It's a $3.8m conversion into a 99-apartment complex with a health centre and retail.

At $3.8m, it doesn't seem as if there'll be much change to the building's exterior.

[QUOTE=yob]

http://smicik.customer.netspace.net.au/santos2.jpg

Yes this is the building in question - the old SANTOS building.

... and a few dodgy-as renders of the proposal. Doesn't look too bad considering what they had to work with. Either way, yah for more old office conversions to resis

http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/7203/102077203ml1102303907.jpg

http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/7203/102077203al1102303907.jpg

http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/7203/102077203bl1102303908.jpg

Thanks for that Adelarch. The render makes me feel a little better about this redvelopment - there's at least some changes to the facade. Hard to pin down the final colour - anywhere between pink and orange from what I can see.

The colour shown in the renderings and the current building seem to be almost identical to me. Kind of odd location for a residential building IMO, there isn't another residential building around for several blocks! It's right in the heart of offices, flanked by two of Adelaide's three tallest.

well its a start redeveloping an old office tower into new apartments.hopefully it will sell/rent well and start a trend, more towers might start up over next few years. An article in newspaper said the CBD population will double in 5-10 years. this is a start

Great find Adelarch.

Much better than I expected for the money they're throwing at it (although it looks like it's more than they're quoting).

I think it's a great little development now. Residential, right in the heart of the office precinct.

As Cul says, hopefully it's just the beginning.

Development consent has been given by council to build 4 additional levels onto the building.

It's now going to be 16 levels, with the apartment count increasing to 126. You'd have to think this is a fairly good indicator of the uptake of city apartments at the moment.

Not sure about the ammended height, but i'd put it at about 50-55m.







I wonder how this will impact sun access to the base of the Grenfell Centre. My prediction is that it will cast an extremely dark shadow to the area, consequently affecting the local skater punk community, possibly morphing them into strange skater punk goth hybrids. There's no word on Avril Lavigne's reaction to the ammendments.

lol @ the shadow skater hybrid gothic punks.

Makes u wonder how well they can add 4 new levels to an older scraper without it looking stupid

lol @ the shadow skater hybrid gothic punks.

Makes u wonder how well they can add 4 new levels to an older scraper without it looking stupid


Hopefully the building will have a completely new facade, to hide the old from the new.

A few details in the latest edition of the Adelaide Review:

Council approved 3 additional levels on the building (I thought 4, ah well).

Developers will decide before Christmas whether to build the extra levels.

15% of apartments have been sold off the plan to date.

Prices from mid 200 - mid 400k for 3 bedroom apartments.

Re: AG's comment about the odd location - it turns out a lot of the sales have been to people who work in the same area, such as in the Telstra building.

Dusting off this old thread. I wondered past on Tuesday and was shocked when I saw how much has gone on. I don't think many of us go though that little area next to the Grenfell Centre very often.

http://photoadelaide.com/JunkPile/2006-11-14/picture%20025_std.jpg

wow that actually looks pretty good. any updates?

This project is now complete.
Front enterance is open
People were moving in. Looks like commercial suite in ground floor.

Thanks for that. I haven't been in that area lately.

The title actually seems misleading now..."the old Santos Building".

"The old old Santos building"