Issue 70 I The Property Development Review

Residential

TALLEST TOWER BACKED FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S BEST-KNOWN BEACH

Author: Chris Thomson

The Urban Developer

An 18-storey residential tower planned for Glenelg has won support from South Australia’s state architect ahead of a decision-making meeting later this week.

development with a residential focus in this location,” she wrote. She also supported the building’s 18 storeys that would rise on an already cleared 1125sq m site across Colley Terrace from Norfolk Pine-lined Colley Reserve. An 11km tram, bus or car trip from the Adelaide CBD and founded in 1836—five months after Kingscote on Kangaroo Island—Glenelg is both mainland SA’s first European settlement and the state’s best known beach. In a report to the assessment panel, senior planning officer for the state Joanne Reid has advised that the 106-apartment project on Colley Terrace would “positively respond to the local context” and not “result in unreasonable impacts on nearby land uses”. “It is acknowledged that this will be the tallest building in Glenelg and therefore requires significant justification to warrant such an uplift in the built form within the context of its setting,” she advised.

The Karidis Corporation project would be the Adelaide seaside suburb’s tallest project, rising five storeys higher than existing buildings. If approved by the State Commission Assessment Panel when it meets on March 11, the mixed-use building would have a ground-floor restaurant and seven levels of retirement living apartments, five levels of serviced apartments, one of residential flats, four storeys of above-ground car parking and one level of basement car parking. The tower, proposed by Adelaide-based developer Karidis Corporation, would have a five-level podium built using brightonlite concrete slab edges with embedded horizontal ribbons. In a letter endorsing the building, SA government architect Kirsteen Mackay lauded its planned “bold” podium. “I support the ambition to deliver a high quality

94 – March / April 2026

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