High-rise apartment proposal for Waymouth Street
A 15-storey apartment building featuring 44 new homes along with a café and restaurant has been proposed for a small corner block in Adelaide’s West End.
Norwood-based architects SMFA, on behalf of an unnamed private developer, lodged plans in May to redevelop 262-268 Waymouth Street into a 52-metre-tall apartment building.
The site on the corner of Waymouth and Gray Street is currently occupied by a small local heritage listed office building and an assortment of other home and office structures.
The local heritage listed office building at 268 Waymouth Street. The building will be retained as part of the development, according to the architects. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
The local heritage building will be retained as part of the development, SMFA said, while the other buildings will be demolished.
SMFA director Scott Meek said the 44 units planned for the site would offer “lower cost” housing with one and two-bedroom apartments of “decent size”.
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A small café is planned to occupy the ground floor to “activate the street frontage”, Meek said, while there will be space on the first floor for a “decent-sized little restaurant”.
Meek said the apartments were to “meet the market demand at the moment”.
“Our client’s got a very small site down there and we’re just working with him to work out what the best outcome for it is, and that’s what we think it might be,” he said.
A ground-level view of the proposed development. Image: MF Studios, SMFA/supplied
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The developer acquired the site for more than $2.1 million in early 2023, according to property records on realestate.com.au.
The 412 square metre site currently has capital city zoning, which allows for development up to 43-metres tall and higher under certain circumstances.
The development proposal is about 170-metres from West Terrace and located within a precinct expected to soak up a lot of development activity over the next decade.
Indeed, Adelaide City Council’s draft City Plan anticipates the West Terrace precinct absorbing 10 per cent of the city’s growth over the next 15 years, while the Light Square precinct is expected to take 8 per cent.
SMFA’s development proposal is also located between two existing high-rise student accommodation blocks: the 17-storey, 59.5-metre-tall Atira on Waymouth Street – opposite the Grace Emily Hotel – and the equally sized UniLodge on Gray Street.
An aerial view of the development site near the 17-storey Unilodge on Gray Street. Photo: McGees Property via Youtube
“It’s good because you can sort of maximise your height down there and maximise the site potentials,” Meek said.
“There just a lot of stock down there ready for development, so I think the West End is sort of ready for that sort of scale and a bit more action that comes to apartment stock.”
The State Commission Assessment Panel will assess SMFA’s development following referrals to Adelaide City Council and the Government Architect.
The council’s advice is due on July 12 and the Government Architect’s on August 4.