Revitalisation Partner for SA’s Southwark Grounds Revealed

Adelaide-headquartered Commercial & General has been selected to build the remaining two-thirds of the Southwark Grounds urban renewal project adjacent to the city’s CBD.

The project will repurpose the historic Walkerville Brew Tower for hospitality and retailing. It will deliver a supermarket, childcare centre, vertical aged-care facility, hospitality and retail outlets and 1000 new homes across approximately 12 apartment buildings.

The Southwark Grounds buildings will be erected by Commercial & General’s Tandem Building Company, with work expected to begin in 2027.

The scheme forms part of a broader 1300‐home development, expanding on five apartment and townhouse projects on the western side of the site announced last year that will deliver about 300 residences.

Renewal SA acting chief executive Shane Wingard said residents were likely to move into the wider precinct later this year, so he was keen to see green space and some hospitality venues delivered early.

“The Brew Tower and its surrounds will prioritise hospitality and open space, creating a central meeting place for residents and visitors,” he said.

Renewal SA bought the Port Road site from Lion Beer Wine & Spirits in 2023 after the company’s West End brewery closed there two years earlier.

In addition to parking in the apartment buildings, Commercial & General will build an 80-space short-stay public car park to cater for visitors to the area.

More than 20 per cent of homes in the precinct will be for affordable sale or rental.

▲ A rendering of Brewery Green, part of the plans for the Southwark Grounds precinct in Adelaide.

The public realm, to cover a minimum 15 per cent of the precinct, will be anchored by a civic space known as Brewery Green that will connect the Walkerville Brew Tower to the River Torrens that meanders along the site’s northern border.

A residential sales centre is planned to open at Southwark Grounds in early 2027.

Civil construction firm Catcon is on site and will soon start building the precinct’s roads. Wingard said Southwark Gardens would take a decade to complete.