Wyndham Hotel Planned for Super-Slim Adelaide Tower

A tiny corner site in Adelaide has been slated for a 94-key Wyndham Hotel on the back of a year of record-high occupancy rates in the Festival State.

The 15-storey tower is proposed for about 9m by 30m opposite Adelaide Park Lands at 81 South Terrace, at the corner with Morphett Street.

CoreLogic property records report Identity Sales and Marketing as the last recorded entity to buy the 272sq m site, paying $561,000 in 2005.

Architectural firm Nic Design Studio lodged the plans on behalf of the elusive applicant, who was not listed in the documents filed with the City of Adelaide and now on exhibition with Plan SA.

A typical floorplate for the folded-facade building includes four 10sq m hotel rooms. A lobby and cafe are planned for the ground floor. 

The Future Urban report said the maximum height for the site under current controls is 36m, however the plans, at almost 50m, reflected “the mix of building types” in the area.

▲ Nic Design Studio renderings of the proposed 15-storey hotel.

Hotel occupancy was at a record high in Adelaide for 9 months of last year, driven by a “non-stop” events calendar, according to the State Government.

The biggest contributors were the Santos Tour Down Under bike ride, Adelaide Fringe festival and AFL Gather Round.

There has this year been a surge of interest in hotel projects for South Australia, including the $100-million IHG Hotels and Resorts plans by Strategic Alliance for the Barossa Valley.

Meanwhile, Adelaide-based developer Thirteen Commercial has put forward plans for a 10-storey hotel on the beachside suburb of Glenelg, and in the city Hilton Adelaide sold to Thai group Amora Hotels & Resorts, which intends to rebrand the 377-room property. 

▲ The floorplan for level 14 of the proposal (above, at top) and a typical floor plan for the tower (at below).

Planning authorities are tending to look favourably at such schemes, such as Sydney-based Equinox Property’s 12-storey office-to-hotel plan in the Adelaide CBD.

This replaced original plans for a $150-million, 39-storey Wyndham Grand Adelaide, put forward in 2018.

And Auriga Investment has been conditionally approved by the State Commission Assessment Panel for a 29-storey dual-tower hotel and apartment development.