With about 57 per cent of buildings in Adelaide at least 40 years old, the South Australian capital has proven itself to be not only a hotbed of heritage refurbishment projects, but also major repositioning and adaptive reuse efforts.

They can be as small as Sparkke at the Whitmore, a brewery venue in a 180-year-old hotel, or as big as the $700-million Tonsley Innovation District or the former Royal Adelaide Hospital’s $2.2-billion transformation into the Lot Fourteen precinct, overseen by Renewal SA.

More recently, developer Citify in September filed an application for a $150-million mixed-use development across a 6200sq m site behind the heritage-listed Buckingham Arms hotel—established 1846—which will be restored under the project.