Adelaide’s large format retail sector is heating up as two new applications faced the State Commission Assessment Panel, with mixed results.
For the first time in about 70 years the Smith Motor Group’s valuation and auction car yard at 279 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide will welcome a new kind of stock.
The property arm of the automobile dealer won planning consent from the SCAP for five bulky goods outlets, including an Officeworks, this month.
This will create a total internal area of 5775sq m across the buildings as well as 159 carparking spaces on the site next to the Outer Harbor passenger rail bridge.
However, plans for the former Marleston TAFE site were refused after they were deemed incompatible to supporting the residential needs of the area, between the Adelaide CBD and the airport.
Adelaide developer Antunes Group had filed the plans for the site in December, seeking to create a 4237sq m building with three tenancies, a 750sq m childcare centre and 113 parking spots.
The group has split the 3.75ha TAFE site into three allotments. This latest part of project is on the 254-262 Richmond Road side of the block.
Antunes is also planning a mini-major retailer and apartments for the former campus, which closed more than 10 years ago.
JLL head retail investments Sam Hatcher said large format retail had experienced strong rental growth across 2024, increasing by 4.8 per cent.
“As a result, owners of existing centres who are experiencing this growth within their portfolios continue to be the most dominant buyers in the market,” Hatcher said.
“Newer entrant capital is hovering across the sector and awaiting datasets, that existing owners are experiencing in real time, before deploying.
“In a supply starved market, we expect rental growth will drive capital engagement leading to more demand and as a result will be the ultimate driver of yield compression in 2025.”
Meanwhile, the industrial sector in the state is also experiencing growth as the second tightest market in the country.
Vacancies held steady at 1.6 per cent in the first half of 2025, according to the CBRE Industrial and Logistics Vacancy Report.
Also in SA, Charter Hall is planning an industrial development, Netley Commercial Park. Plans for it are on exhibition with PlanSA until July 29.
The property powerhouse plans to redevelop 13 allotments across a 1.1ha site near Adelaide Airport at 282-324 Richmond Road, Netley.
It would create 62,843sq m of warehouse floor area and 4200sq m of office space in two buildings that would be divided into nine tenancies.
Last year ISPT closed out construction on its $190-million industrial estate in Adelaide’s north-west, creating 20 industrial tenancies spanning a total of 91,000sq m at Woodville.
