Quintessential wins jewel in Adelaide's high-tech precinct
Property investment platform Quintessential will develop its biggest project yet, a $400 million office building at the heart of a high-tech innovation precinct emerging from the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site.
Known as Lot Fourteen, the South Australian government, backed by Canberra, has high hopes for the precinct as a hub for high-growth industries: including the space and defence sectors; high tech, including cyber security, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data; and the creative industries.
More than $700 million in government investment is expected for the precinct, paving the way for a further $1.2 billion in private sector investment.
A focus for the precinct will be the government-backed Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre. It will be the anchor tenant, taking two-thirds of the space of a 35,000-square-metre tower which Quintessential will develop.
Over 16 levels, the building will provide secure commercial, research andnetworking spaces, guided by a mantra of creating the next generation of jobs.
Quintessential’s executive chairman, Shane Quinn, likened the precinct to a “mini Silicon Valley”, where postgraduate education would be embedded within organisations in an effort to accelerate technological change and the skills needed for it.
“We don’t know what the jobs of the future are, but we know they’re coming,” he told The Australian Financial Review. “To stay at the forefront of that technology, you need to be constantly updating your skills and training.”
Private sector operators will take up the remaining one-third, or about 12,000 square metres, of the building, effectively “wrapping around” the government-backed hub, according to Mr Quinn.
“It was all created pre-COVID but it plays so well into a post-COVID world because this building has extensive collaboration centres.
“It’s the way of the future. Businesses are going to have to collaborate and innovate together in an ecosystem such as this building.”
High-tech organisations including Amazon, the Australian Space Agency, the SmartSat Co-operative Research Centre, MIT bigdata Living Lab, the Australian Institute of Machine Learning, and the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre are already calling Lot Fourteen home.
“The EIC will be a powerful generator of jobs of the future and represents the next major stage of investment at Lot Fourteen,” Premier Steven Marshall said.
“This is the place where global high-tech businesses want to be. We have just announced that Amazon were setting up shop at Lot Fourteen, yet another example of the precinct being a magnet for investment.”
Early site works and excavation have started and the building is due for completion in late 2023.
Quintessential already has considerable exposure in the Adelaide market, holding one of Port Adelaide’s largest industrial estates, and through a prominent CBD office tower at 431 King William Street that it acquired from Rich Lister Con Makris three years ago.
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