South Australian Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, The Hon. Stephan Knoll today announced that leading Adelaide hospitality and brewing operator, Kidd Retail Group (KRG), was the successful proponent to develop the Boiler House for adaptive reuse.
The new brewhouse will offer craft beers brewed on site under the Lady Burra label, meals, coffees and drinks throughout the day and entertainment in the evenings. It will employ 75 staff when it is operational next year.
Responsible for bringing us Adelaide’s first CBD microbrewery, the Lady Burra Brewhouse, “KRG is a proud South Australian business and has a fantastic vision to redevelop the Boiler House into a thriving brewery,” said Minister Knoll.
“It will honour Tonsley’s industrial character and provide a social focus for the business people, employees and students already on site.
“I’m sure that the addition of further food and beverage options will be welcome news for the more than 30 businesses and around 1300 people employed on the Tonsley site.”
In addition to the Lady Burra Brewhouse and the Boiler House, KRG plans to open three other hospitality venues in the inner-city this year – a café offering cocktails and desserts in the evening, a wine and tapas bar that will serve as a cellar door for guest wineries, and a Miami-style rooftop cocktail bar.
KRG proprietor Steven Kidd said the group plans to offer a taste of all these CBD offerings under the one, big roof at the Boiler House and brew beers on site under the Lady Burra label.
The 1960s Boiler House has retained many of its industrial features from the days when its plant pumped steam and electricity into the Main Assembly Building (MAB) via an overhead gantry, and was integral to the former Mitsubishi car factory at Tonsley.
Kidd said the size of the 800 square metre Boiler House was one of its big attractions, along with its unique location in the heart of an innovation district.
“The Boiler House will give us the space for a brewery that can provide beer for our bars in the city, supplementing what we are able to produce at Lady Burra in Topham Mall. We also provide keg beer to other outlets and are looking to produce a range of bottled or canned beers at the Boiler House.
“We will be introducing on site taps into Tonsley’s manufacturing heritage and this will be reflected in our fit-out for the Boiler House. This work will be done by experienced national fit out firm, Pinnacle, which has its headquarters and joinery workshop in Adelaide. Pinnacle has many high profile retail and commercial clients throughout Australia and its hospitality fit outs include Jamie’s Italian in Adelaide and Perth and Parlamento on Adelaide’s North Terrace.”
Mr Kidd said he expected the brewhouse would open for business in early 2019 and would employ about 75 staff when operational.
The development of the Boiler House is part of the Tonsley vision to create a vivid mixed-use precinct that provides an interface between residents, businesses and researchers to support co-design and co-creation of new products and services.
Construction work began this year on the first homes for Tonsley Village, which will ultimately house about 850 people.
Lot 34, adjacent the Boiler House, is also set to be redeveloped to create retail business opportunities and landscaped public areas for a range of events.
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