11/9/2013 12:34
A PRIME piece of King William St real estate just north of the Adelaide GPO is set to become a beer garden.
Developer Aspen Group has applied to the Development Assessment Commission to add a beer garden for 115 people to its approved plans for a $10 million revamp of historic Electra House into a hotel with dining, function and gaming rooms.
The walls and pillars around the partially roofed garden would be a mix of recycled brick and timber cladding.
A steel and glass staircase clad underneath with copper and aluminium would link the garden to the upper levels of the hotel.
City Council planners have supported the application and a report by heritage consultant Bruce Harry says the beer garden would be a "sympathetic addition".
Disability access to the hotel from the beer garden would eliminate the need to remodel the front facade of state heritage-listed Electra House to install a chair lift.
Aspen Group commercial development general manager Ben Yates said there was no time frame set for the project and declined to comment further until the Development Assessment Commission assessed it later this month.
Electra House, which has been vacant for 18 years, was built in 1901 for the Citizens' Life Assurance Company.
It was later a telegraph exchange, a Post Master General's technicians' school, and a telecommunications museum.
TIM WILLIAMS
CITY MESSENGER SEPTEMBER 09, 2013