Bringing Life Back Upstairs in Adelaide’s Empty Heritage Buildings

Central Adelaide has more than 2500 heritage-listed places. But what to do with the dilapidated ones and other unoccupied buildings amid the ongoing housing crisis? The City of Adelaide says its Adaptive Reuse City Housing Initiative (ARCHI) is making headway turning empty shoptops in particular into houses. Since mid-2023, when ARCHI began, the city has entered into 12 incentive agreements with property owners anticipated to deliver 17 homes and 30 beds. Of these agreements, five residential projects have been completed, delivering seven homes and 14 beds. Two more projects anticipated to deliver another two homes and seven beds are under construction. On the face of things, that doesn’t sound like much. But meeting The Urban Developer at one such project to discuss details of how adaptive reuse is advancing in Adelaide are Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith, ARCHI project manager Ellen Liebelt, building owner Shaun Jones and project architects Justin Cucchiarelli and Taylor Cunningham of Studio Nine. Like cosmopolitan Rundle Street where we catch up on a mild summer day forecast to be followed by 40-plus-degree scorchers, ARCHI’s delivery numbers are modest but, Lomax-Smith says, the program is heating up. “We started with the low-hanging fruit, what was easy, which was the shoptop and small commercial buildings under four storeys,” she says of the scheme that has identified more than 150 under-used buildings suitable for reuse as housing. “We’ve proved the concept is viable and there’s been an absolute sea-change in acceptance and enthusiasm by the property-owning market. “And we’re now switching to incorporating the higher buildings, which are much slower because the challenges are greater in terms of the design of the windows and the access, but there are people looking at those bigger projects now.” Through an incentives scheme, ARCHI provides money to help building owners navigate requirements associated with specialist design and conservation expertise. The program offers grants up to various capped levels , generally on a 50/50 matching basis, for feasibility assessment, professional advice, documentation and building works. Lomax-Smith says ARCHI will help deliver the 50,000 population she wants to see in her municipality that encompasses the Adelaide CBD, the leafy inner suburb of North Adelaide and the Adelaide Park Lands. These areas are on the national heritage list and were laid out by Colonel William Light whose visionary 1837 scheme for Adelaide made the South Australian capital Australia’s only planned city until work began on Canberra in 1913. “There were 50,000 people in the City of Adelaide in the 1950s, but now we’re at 29,000,” Lomax-Smith says. “The difference in the 1950s is that you had five people living in a dwelling. “You can’t do that any more because people don’t share bedrooms like they used to.” ▲ Jane Lomax-Smith outside 214a-216 Rundle Street, an Adaptive Reuse City Housing Initiative project. Image: Chris Thomson The two-time lord mayor says that in the 1990s when she was first in South Australia’s top local political job there were 2.7 people a home in the City of Adelaide but that has fallen to 1.7. “So the challenge for us is to build more to accommodate less because people are not living together,” she says. Lomax-Smith says that encouraging more people to call the CBD home, helping to address the ongoing housing crisis and replenishing Adelaide’s ample supply of heritage stock are among the reasons she is pleased with ARCHI’s progress. She says that on top of the program’s direct financial incentives, the City’s heritage conservation, sustainability and noise-reduction programs have been refocused towards increasing the supply of housing. “Our heritage stock can only be saved if it’s used,” she says. “Finding a way to revitalise and make the property have a purpose and an income stream for the owner is a good thing.” ARCHI project manager Ellen Liebelt is a heritage architect who says that having been a practitioner has its advantages for the program. “You have a good feel for the challenges and opportunities and some of the key characteristics to look for,” she says. “And it’s also really handy to know some of the different consultant teams working in the space and different developers. “Adelaide is a nice, well-connected community in terms of our built environment people.” ▲ Ellen Liebelt at cosmopolitan Rundle Street in the Adelaide CBD. Image: Chris Thomson She says the potential taller buildings ARCHI is turning its focus to range in size. “There’s certainly some taller buildings available beyond the midrise," she says. “It’s a real mix; we’ve just looked to see whatever’s vacant, to see what we can unlock.” Unlocking the Rundle Street property’s chunky front door to show The Urban Developer around, owner Shaun Jones says the number of empty old buildings around Adelaide is “crazy”. “I think that’s why the program’s so good, so that someone like myself, like a ma and pa [business] can come into it, find a historical building and re-adapt it for commercial and residential,” he says. “I’m not a developer, so for me, coming into these projects, having something like this program helps me find the preferred way. “Not knowing anyone in the industry, not knowing the builders, the architects, to do something like this you need a really good niche team and the program’s helped me find that.” Jones is revitalising half the ground floor and the entire top floor of a vacant and dilapidated building on the City’s heritage list to create an upstairs three-bedroom family home and downstairs commercial tenancy. The project involves an extension to the rear of the late-1800s-built structure and renovating the entire heritage facade as pictured at the top of this story. ▲ Shaun Jones on the ground floor of the soon-to-be renovated Rundle Street property he bought about two years ago. Image: Chris Thomson Jones says he paid $2.6-million for the building about two years ago, and the one-year build, to start in March 2026, will cost between $1.4-million and $1.5-million. “Previously it was hard to do anything with a historic building with council changes and trade changes and what-not over time,” he says. “It’s become a little bit better through the [ARCHI] program. “I’m hoping that other councils come on board and take on the program as well.” He says he has received between $50,000 and $60,000 in funding for the project through ARCHI and aligned City programs. “We’re taking old buildings that are in the best part of Adelaide and turning them into housing,” he says. “Half the infrastructure’s already there, you’ve already got footings; it’s basically a tickle and a refurb and you turn it into a house. “Once you’ve got residential, you’ve got people going out to get a feed at night, shopping in the local supermarket, parking their car in the carpark; it’s a perfect outcome for the local economy.” Next to an original fireplace upstairs in the Rundle Street property, Studio Nine Architects director Justin Cucchiarelli says that once architects get to do one adaptive reuse project they become more adept at working with planning regulations and the building code for such developments. “They are perceived as tricky projects, and there is a level of detail and investigation that goes into that,” he says. ▲ Nine Architects’ Taylor Cunningham and Justin Cucchiarelli with one of the building ’ s original three fireplaces. Image: Chris Thomson Upstairs, the building will include three bedrooms, an ensuite and another bathroom. The kitchen, dining area and main bedroom will overlook Rundle Street through two existing windows that will be fitted with an extra layer of glass to dampen noise from Rundle Street. Downstairs, beside the new commercial premises, there will be a courtyard. “The thing that the courtyard will do is bring in a lot of natural light,” Cucchiarelli says. “And through some of the darker spaces we’re bringing skylights in. “So we think in the end that for a building that’s got a minimal amount of windows there should be a reasonable amount of natural light.” ▲ Rendering of the Rundle Street property ’ s kitchen and dining area. Image: Studio Nine Architects Studio Nine Graduate of Architecture Taylor Cunningham, for whom the Rundle Street renovation is her first heritage job, says the project has been “challenging but very rewarding”. “The heritage and the functionality of the building; you have to weigh up and balance both those things,” she says. “We’ve got a few more heritage projects coming up that I’m on, which is very exciting.” The initial ARCHI program that ran in 2023/24 and 2024/25 was set up with $750,000 of state funding. The money supported research and investigation, Liebelt’s engagement and a $250,000 incentives pool for building owners. The program has now transitioned into a $1.718-million, three-year scheme co-funded 50/50 by the city and the state.

Bringing Life Back Upstairs in Adelaide’s Empty Heritage Buildings

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