Adelaide's newest office building is wired for the future

The millionaire offloaded his Adam Internet business for $60 million in 2013 and was looking for somewhere to park his money. He was guided by uncertainty about the stock market and the belief that “you can’t go wrong in the CBD”.

In his 60s and nearing retirement, Hicks had bought the CBD site in 2012 when it housed a “dilapidated three-storey building” right next door to his then Adam Internet headquarters.

The new office building in the heart of Adelaide.

Using local firm Dash Architects, he wanted to create a niche offering – a commercial site that allowed smaller companies who’d normally find themselves relegated to a “back corner” of a conventional building to lease entire floors within a brand new four-star NABER-rated setting.

Capitalising on a slump in the construction industry, Hicks broke ground in 2015. He estimates the downturn saved him close to $10 million because “a lot of the major builders were wanting to just keep their teams together”.

“When I went out to tender … I was astounded at what they came back in at,” he says.

Fully wired

The building will have a reception, boardrooms and meeting rooms that can be accessed by tenants if desired. “They’d join like a Qantas Club arrangement and that would give them access to all the facilities in the building,” Hicks says.

There will also be co-working spaces featuring “hot desks” and even “hot offices”. All tenants – whether hot deskers or long-term leasees – will enjoy unlimited internet and phone.

“You don’t pay for phone calls, you don’t pay for internet, you just walk in the door and you’re wired,” says Hicks.

The 23-storey building is Hicks’s first major development but he is no stranger to the real estate game and has a diversified portfolio stretching across several states.

The owner and developer of one one five KWS, Greg Hicks. Photo: Supplied

“My father had always been in real estate … and I’ve always found real estate is a better return [than other investment vehicles],” he says.

Hicks could have bought an existing commercial site but didn’t want to inherit problems.

“I don’t have all the issues with old elevators, asbestos in the building and air-conditioning that was never originally designed for the building,” he says. “A building that was put up in the ‘70s was never designed to have a computer for each person … and you find most of those buildings from the 1970s, they can’t cope with the [summer] heat.”

Adelaide commercial leasing expert Jon Cranna, who is a director of Colliers International, describes the South Australian office market as “challenging” as business confidence has taken a beating in many sectors.

Cranna says one one five KWS, as it is known, provides a different opportunity for high-end yet small tenancies. “Most buildings of that quality wouldn’t be able to provide a tenancy of [just] 250 square metres,” he says.

Hicks is hoping to have the building fully leased in two years. He says he is yet to sell the naming rights, having only launched the leasing campaign on Friday.

Troubled Times Put Behind

In South Australia Greg Hicks is known for growing Adam Internet from a hobby in his suburban home to a multi-million dollar success story.

However, about the same time that he sold the business to iinet, he had a bitter falling out with his son, Scott. Lurid claims of broken promises, office affairs and blackmail attempts led to a very public court case that ended in a private settlement.

The younger Hicks has since co-founded data company YourDC and last year invested $30 million into a large data centre in Adelaide’s north.