The commercial takeover of Festival Plaza
Few people realise that the Festival Plaza is part of the Adelaide Park Lands. Yet in 2012, it was given away to a billionaire for a 27-storey office tower, shops and a car park. Demolition started in 2018, then paused as the property developer (Lang Walker) haggled to get more money out of South Australian taxpayers, to increase his profits.
Here’s the 2015 story about how it unfolded:
Both sides of State politics share blame for this. The initial deal was done by the former Labor Government of Jay Weatherfill. The Liberal Government of Steven Marshall could have walked away from the deal in 2018, but allowed it to proceed.
In 2020 the Liberal Government even increased the size of the giveaway to the Walker Corporation, increasing taxpayer commitment to more than $250 million and agreed to reduce the number of trees in the Walker Corporation plans. (Subscriber-only link to News Ltd story 21 April 2020)
In September 2022, Walker Corporation began a renewed push to get a second skyscraper approved, to replace a previously-proposed three-storey shopping area.
Walker Corporation’s wish was granted by the State Government on 9 April 2024.
Premier Peter Malinauskas unveiling the proposed second new Festival Plaza tower on 9 April 2024. (ABC News: Rory McClaren)
The Plaza could have been easily and cheaply returned to Park Lands.
A design competition for this purpose was run in 2015, by the then-leader of the Greens Party in SA, the Hon. Mark Parnell:
Design by Arnie Blanden - just one of the several winning designs in the competition hosted by Greens MLC Mark Parnell.
The former State Government ignored this Park Land-friendly, low-cost design and instead did multi-million dollar deals with the operators of the Adelaide Casino, and Melbourne-based Walker Corporation to erect a casino extension encroaching onto Elder Park. a high-rise tower block behind it, and a separate three-level dining and retail building.
In addition to losing great swathes of our public open space, taxpayers were to be contributing more than $250 million towards the cost.
All of this was arranged behind closed doors, with no public tender, no public consultation, and no electoral mandate to give away this part of your Park Lands.
But even this, the largest-ever privatisation of your Adelaide Park Lands, was not enough for Walker Corporation.
In 2024, the Malinauskas Labor Government went further, scrapped the proposed three-level retail building, and approved construction of a second tower, up to 40 storeys.
If you think Adelaide can do better than this, then TAKE ACTION!
