RetirementChris ThomsonFri 12 Jun 26
State Blesses Retirement Lodge for Past Home of Adelaide’s Archbishops
The former home of Adelaide’s Catholic archbishops is ready to be repurposed as a community hub for a two-tower retirement village after a state development approval for a 19,400sq m site at the gateway to the Adelaide Hills.
Thanks to a State Commission Assessment Panel approval on June 10, Southern Cross Care can now build Stage 2 of its Carmelite retirement village at the corner of Glen Osmond and Cross roads in Adelaide’s Myrtle Bank.
Proposed for a largely cleared 19,400sq m site, Stage Two of the village will comprise a seven-storey tower and a four-storey building linked by a lower ground level car park with 94 spaces.
Designed by Walter Brooke Architecture, the buildings will rise beside the village’s existing Stage 1, a five-storey building on the corner of Cross Road and Spence Avenue.
The site is 3.7km south-east of the Adelaide CBD at a spot where the South Eastern Freeway starts and begins to rise sharply to the Adelaide Hills locales of Mount Lofty, Stirling, Crafers and Hahndorf.
The centrepiece of the project is the single-storey, state heritage listed Carmelite Monastery that until 1935 housed Adelaide’s Catholic archbishops.
Southern Cross Care plans to adapt the monastery into a community hub for residents of Stages 1 and 2. The hub would house a library, lounge room, cinema, kitchen, manager’s office and meeting and function rooms.
The two new buildings would have two four-bedroom penthouses, 28 three-bedroom apartments with a study, seven three-bedroom apartments without a study and nine two-bedroom apartments with a study.
Residents would have access to all amenities of the Carmelite precinct, including meals and medical services, but will live independently.
A further 36 car parks are proposed for around the site.
Southern Cross Care was contacted for comment for this story.
