New Property Council SA chief Richard Angove wants Torrens Riverbank redevelopment

Former senior public servant and Adelaide Casino executive Richard Angove will take up the role of executive director on September 3.

He replaces Nathan Paine who is moving to Sydney for a national role with the council.

Mr Angove, 60, spent the past seven years with Adelaide Casino, most recently as its executive manager of major capital projects - experience he believes will put him in a unique position to encourage private sector involvement in the Riverbank redevelopment.

Mr Angove described the precinct plan as "visionary" but said "it now needs the private sector to step up and get underway with a number of elements that will enliven the space".

"If we can emulate what they have done in Brisbane, and better it, we should be pretty pleased, " he said.

Brisbane's South Bank is hugely popular with families, and features markets, museums, galleries, swimming lagoons, gardens, a riverfront promenade and a giant Ferris wheel.

"It's a very good piece of design, " Mr Angove said.

"There you can walk along from the art gallery to the museum to food stalls, past the pool area.

"It has a unification from one end to the other which we don't yet have in Adelaide.

"We have unique facilities (along North Tce) but they're not yet linked together."

Adelaide City Council Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood said he would like to see as much open space as possible retained in the Adelaide riverbank development.

"For me, in 100 years time when every city in the world has developed much of its open space, if we can protect the integrity of our parklands we will be the greatest city on the face of the planet, " he said.

"I think it will be truly unique. People will one day want to emulate what we have done, rather than us talking about South Bank."

Mr Yarwood also cautioned that federal, state and local government funding had gone into creating Brisbane's South Bank.

"Its great to have these bold visions but the money has got to come from somewhere and we need to be realistic, " he said.

Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said Brisbane's precinct was "beautiful" but she criticised the Labor Party for being late "to the party" on developing Adelaide's own riverbank.

"I think it will be truly unique. People will one day want to emulate what we have done, rather than us talking about South Bank."

Mr Yarwood also cautioned that federal, state and local government funding had gone into creating Brisbane's South Bank.

"Its great to have these bold visions but the money has got to come from somewhere and we need to be realistic, " he said.

Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said Brisbane's precinct was "beautiful" but she criticised the Labor Party for being late "to the party" on developing Adelaide's own riverbank.

"What undermines confidence in this being the best it can be is that they (the government) are doing it piecemeal, " she said.

"They say that they have a masterplan but they haven't actually given us the detail.

"All the way through the public have been kept in the dark for what the total plan is."

Mr Angove, a father of three adult daughters, worked for four years in the Department of Premier and Cabinet under Liberal Premiers John Olsen and Rob Kerin and immediate past Labor Premier Mike Rann. He said stemming the brain drain out of the state would be another area of focus.

"I do have a personal view that if you were to speak to Melbournites, or people in New York, there's a brain drain out of those places too, " Mr Angove said.

"I don't think its unique to Adelaide but I think we're disproportionately high."

Exciting business and employment opportunities would keep young South Australians here, he said.

by Lauren Novak, The Advertiser

August 8, 2013