Developers, Investors Called for $500m Tapangka Project

Renewal SA is inviting registrations of interest for the $500-million Tapangka on Franklin (Tapangka) project. 

Located at the former Adelaide Bus Station site at 111-129 Franklin Street, immediately adjacent to the Adelaide Central Market and Chinatown precinct, Renewal SA’s bold vision is for a dynamic mixed-use precinct that includes a minimum of 392 apartments, incorporating both market housing and build-to rent, while ensuring 35 per cent affordable housing, across a consolidated 6850sq m site. 

The flexible masterplan is envisioned to make Tapangka [artist’s impression pictured above] an activated mixed-use precinct supporting 1000 new residents, workers, and visitors, targeting hotel/short-stay accommodation and complementary commercial and retail spaces centred around a signature building. 

“With Tapangka there is a genuine opportunity for a development partner or partners to incorporate further innovation and development intelligence to the vision to bring the precinct to life,” Renewal SA chief executive Chris Menz said. 

Menz said the project, which early estimates show has a potential market value of up to $500 million, aimed to provide a benchmark for genuinely sustainable and viable development investment in Adelaide’s CBD [pictured above and immediately below]. 

“Our plans for Tapangka aim to bring together home ownership and a range of housing tenure mix, sustainability, reconciliation and partnership by creating a vibrant mixed-use precinct,” Menz said. 

“In addition to delivering more housing options in the CBD, we think that the space outside presents the opportunity to create a street culture that blends between the Adelaide Central Market precinct, and adds further activity while setting a unique identity, with lifestyle, art and sustainability. 

“The precinct will leverage Adelaide’s new confidence and investment outlook by being bold in design, clear in purpose, and focused on making people’s lives more sustainable and connected.”

Record of success 

Menz said Renewal SA, the South Australian government’s property development agency, had completed due diligence on the site and engaged global architecture studio Woods Bagot to design flexible development schemes for the project. 

Renewal SA would act as the master developer for Tapangka by co-ordinating and partnering with one or more selected development and investment partners to deliver the project vision and elements, he said. 

“Renewal SA has a proven track record of successful partnerships on market-leading projects,” Menz said. 

“We do this by working with the development industry and seeking their input and helping them succeed.” 

Renewal SA has appointed Colliers to lead the market-sounding and registrations-of-interest process to determine suitable development partners. 

▲ The precinct will be “bold in design, clear in purpose, and focused on making people’s lives more sustainable and connected”.

Optimal timing

Robert Papaleo, national director, residential capital markets at Colliers, said Renewal SA had acted strategically to create this innovative development partnership opportunity. 

“The project is significant, with timing aligned to the rising attraction of Adelaide to both domestic and international groups, recognising the scarcity of CBD sites of this scale,” Papaleo said, highlighting South Australia’s growing economy underpinned by transformational investments in the growth industries of energy, health infrastructure and defence that will underpin strong demand over the short and long-term future. 

Colliers is seeking early engagement from visionary partners with demonstrated capability and experience in built form projects of this scale and land-use mix.

How it works 

Tapangka is inspired by the experience of going on a journey: following a path to home ownership, towards sustainability and partnership. In the Aboriginal Kaurna language, this experience is known as Tapangka (Tup-un-gar). 

Through Stage One, Renewal SA is actively seeking feedback from the industry on all aspects of this opportunity to realise the project vision but also maximise the development potential from this rare strategic land parcel. 

From there, qualified participants in the RoI stage will be invited to participate in a stage two request-for-proposal (RFP) process. 

The outcomes of the ROI will inform the timings of the RFP process, which is earmarked for the first quarter of 2025. 

More information about Tapangka can be found at renewalsa.sa.gov.au/Tapangka

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