News & Developments: Bowden TOD

[Mpol02]

What happened to that commercial residential proposal from that Melbourne group that Malaka tried to swat with the Adelaide crowd stupidity? Has that gone under because of his stupidity?

[Nathan]

Will be great for the area, but this still gets to me:

I hear ya! it's annoying that they have blinkers on and believe retail is all about food & coffee.

I see they have tried to remedy the inability to locate a chemist in the area by offering free delivery from 2 nearby chemists. I guess that is something.

I'm still hopeful the gasworks site will provide a space for more diverse retail.

The chemist delivery is something that came out of our discussions with Renewal SA. One of the barriers for a pharmacy in Bowden is the usual nonsense with the pharmacy guild. An application to the federal health minister can override them, but it's very rare. Alternatively Renewal SA started a conversation with the pharmacy on Port Rd (up near the Hope Inn), one seeing what it would take for them to move into Bowden, and two, what can be done as a stop gap solution. Apparently the delivery service was already a thing, but obviously very poorly promoted because no one knew about it all.

The bit about the larger retail space is annoying, because it seems aimed at what we've said to both Renewal SA and the media, but misses the point entirely. In fact we even raised that part of the current problem is that the few available commercial spaces go unleased due to being too large and requiring too much rent.

[Nathan]

What happened to that commercial residential proposal from that Melbourne group that Malaka tried to swat with the Adelaide crowd stupidity? Has that gone under because of his stupidity?

The gasworks site by MAB? Still undergoing remediation, but they are apparently ahead of schedule, and could possibly have first announcements later this year. Likely to be some of the Nightingale affordable housing components, plus some of the public space and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings on the southern end of the site moved forward.

[Mpol02]

I’m not sure if it was for Bowden or that but it seems it’s for the works site and that’s great to hear

[ChillyPhilly]

Will be great for the area, but this still gets to me:

I hear ya! it's annoying that they have blinkers on and believe retail is all about food & coffee.

I see they have tried to remedy the inability to locate a chemist in the area by offering free delivery from 2 nearby chemists. I guess that is something.

I'm still hopeful the gasworks site will provide a space for more diverse retail.

Definitely something, but as we all know this is a bandaid solution and does not help the area to achieve its walkability goals.

[gnrc_louis]

Latest Bowden proposal, the design feels sort of post-modern? I don't mind it.

https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/news/afford ... e-revealed

Also, has the office development next to Bowden Station started? I drove past and noticed works happening, but couldn't get a clear view.

[Nathan]

Latest Bowden proposal, the design feels sort of post-modern? I don't mind it.

https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/news/afford ... e-revealed

Also, has the office development next to Bowden Station started? I drove past and noticed works happening, but couldn't get a clear view.

Mali's car park. I still think a multi-storey is completely counter to goals of Bowden, but I'm glad they've taken on a suggestion I had at the forum last year at decoupling car parking from the apartments within this development. Allowing people to rent an apartment, and then separately rent however many car parks they need (or don't need) is a much much better option then increasing mandated parking minimums (which Malinauskas was intending).

The smaller office development along the train station has started, but the the larger one (6 Park Tce) has not (I believe they're now trying to reconfigure it, as the market for suburban offices has changed dramatically since it was first designed)

[gnrc_louis]

Latest Bowden proposal, the design feels sort of post-modern? I don't mind it.

https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/news/afford ... e-revealed

Also, has the office development next to Bowden Station started? I drove past and noticed works happening, but couldn't get a clear view.

Mali's car park. I still think a multi-storey is completely counter to goals of Bowden, but I'm glad they've taken on a suggestion I had at the forum last year at decoupling car parking from the apartments within this development. Allowing people to rent an apartment, and then separately rent however many car parks they need (or don't need) is a much much better option then increasing mandated parking minimums (which Malinauskas was intending).

The smaller office development along the train station has started, but the the larger one (6 Park Tce) has not (I believe they're now trying to reconfigure it, as the market for suburban offices has changed dramatically since it was first designed)

Agreed re: the carpark. Keeping the Premier as far away as possible from any planning decisions at Bowden is essential.

It feels like Bowden is starting to make progress and move along again, with proposals for all sites except the one at the front next to Jarmers - any idea what is happening with that?

[Nathan]

Agreed re: the carpark. Keeping the Premier as far away as possible from any planning decisions at Bowden is essential.

It feels like Bowden is starting to make progress and move along again, with proposals for all sites except the one at the front next to Jarmers - any idea what is happening with that?

I don't think the Jarmers carpark site has ever been put out to market. I wouldn't expect any movement on that until all the other Park Tce facing lots are fully developed.

[SRW]

'Residents to move in at the start of 2026'... I hope they can keep to the timeline on this project. I note that the Park Court site at Greenhill Rd is a similar model and nothing's happened there since demolition of existing homes early last year.

[ChillyPhilly]

A nice comment by a reader on the InDaily article:

Commenting on the story: Designs released for new Bowden housing development

It is very encouraging to see this proposal for development in Bowden.

While the building exceeds the height limit established in the Renewal SA masterplan, it does deliver retail tenancies and affordable housing, which support the masterplan objectives regarding housing diversity and the creation of a walkable neighbourhood.

The vertical greening shown in the images of the proposed development are also a very positive inclusion and will provide amenity and assist in urban cooling. Finally, it’s great to read that accommodation for people taking precedence over carparking. With the Bowden train station a few minutes walk from the building, let’s hope that the ‘option’ to retrofit more carparking is never taken up.

It’s great to see Renewal SA commissioning quality design outcomes that demonstrate how housing in South Australia can better respond to people, place and climate. The icing on the cake would be for Renewal to credit the designer of the proposal. Renewal SA, lets celebrate the design team! And please, make sure that you safeguard design quality in the tender documents so that it doesn’t get value managed out during construction.

I also hope that the release of this proposal sends out a challenge to the private development proposed for the adjacent site to deliver the same level of benefit for the Bowden community. The current proposal is disappointing due to the lack of ground floor retail to activate the area and provide much needed services for residents, as well as the dominance of the four levels of carparking.

The Bowden masterplan was a very forward-thinking and well-crafted document, and it should not be tossed aside so easily – especially by a New York based developer such as Sentinel, who should understand how to realise a pedestrian friendly, mass transit oriented, mixed use development. Although they do get full marks for acknowledging the design by Architectus.

Now all Sentinel need to do is allow Architectus to rework the proposal to more fully respond to the intent of the masterplan. Then Bowden has the chance to realise its full potential for the benefit of residents and the wider community.

[AR45]

FYI, you can see a somewhat more detailed masterplan of the MAB site as part of a code amendment proposal: https://plan.sa.gov.au/have_your_say/co ... /initiated (in the proposal to initiate pdf).