Many developers buy the worst building on the best street—Ross Pelligra bought the worst team in the league and scooped up the infrastructure that goes along with it.
For Australian soccer that was the Perth Glory, which at the time was without a home ground and who were bottom of the ladder in the 2024 season.
But things are looking up.
Pelligra is about to sign a memorandum of understanding, the first for multiple sites for the team, including a large-scale development, and has pulled the whole team together.
“We’re changing and swapping around players, putting in support with the team, seeing where our loopholes are ... there’s a lot of work,” Pelligra says.
“The team was distressed, it had nothing, practically.
“We straight away secured a deal with the council in Mirrabooka to put in a training facility so they had a fixed home to go to, a proper gymnasium and proper offices for the staff.
“It’s the first time that the club in its history has actually had the support, marketing and office team all on one premises, supporting the team from every angle from the firsts to the juniors.”
The Pelligra Group also owns Adelaide Lightning women’s basketball team, the Adelaide Giants baseball team, the Canberra Braves ice hockey side and the Adelaide Adrenaline ice hockey team. And the infrastructure that goes along with them.
“We’ve created quite a bit of a circular asset class around it,” Pelligra says.
“It supports the sports teams from medical to accommodation—hotel long-stay and short-stay—other facilities that are ancillary to sports like restaurants, cafes…”
The group is currently working on what has been lauded as the biggest gym in the southern hemisphere, at the former Holden factory at Elizabeth, south of Adelaide.
It boasts 6700sq m of space including a basketball court, plunge pools, saunas, nutrition bar and retail, and will cost around $10 million to fit out.
“You can invest in anything, but when you invest in things that bring people together, it leaves a mark on lives—it’s a great outcome,” Pelligra says.
The interest in sports drew Pelligra from a young age but he got pulled out of teams to work in the vertically integrated property company his grandfather built.
The idea at the time was to buy, build and (practically) never sell. They amassed a large portfolio from the company forming in 1958 to when his family moved from Italy to Melbourne, where the group is based.
And while the Pelligra Group has many sports-based assets, it is far from its only interest. Other projects include a high-profile hotel and residential and commercial developmnents across the country.
However, it is what the next decade has in store and the group’s strategy for harnessing it that will be the focus on the main stage of Urbanity on Wednesday, July 30 when Pelligra brings his perspective to the All-In panel,
He will join Andrew Deveson from Kapitol Group, Anouk Darling from Scape and David Gallant from Walker Corporation for the panel.
The panel is among a myriad of must-see sessions at Urbanity, The Urban Developer’s flagship three-day conference on the Gold Coast from July 29-31. For more details click here.
