Forestville

The $250 million redevelopment of the Forestville site will deliver on an innovative master plan, combining a bustling market square with retail and services, outdoor dining and play spaces, an Urban Green School, short-stay accommodation, and apartment, terrace and townhouse living.

The result is a new heart for the city’s south-west corner.

Renewal SA has partnered with a consortium that includes Commercial Retail Group, Peet Limited and Buildtec to bring the site, formerly home to the old Le Cornu business, back to life.

Key features of the master plan include:

• A mix of high-quality terraces and apartments including a diverse range of 71 medium density townhouses and 245 apartments across two buildings, providing homes to suit a variety of lifestyles.
• A market square, known as The Agora, featuring a Chapley-owned supermarket, restaurants and specialty stores. It will also provide residents with direct access to Leader Street and Maple Avenue.
• Concentrated retail activity and public activity at the western edge of the site along Anzac Highway.
• Urban Green School, owned and operated by Youth Inc, where students will learn about sustainable food production, urban farming and business skills.
• A rooftop Urban Farm spanning more than 3600 sqm practising regenerative agriculture and tended by students from the Urban Green School.
• 30 per cent open and green space, about half of which will be 24/7 publicly accessible land.
• Short-stay apartments within a six-level building on the intersection of Leader Street and Anzac Highway, catering for the growing visitor economy, from overnight stays and weekend visitors to longer-term relocators and those accessing nearby health and medical facilities.

An estimated 900 direct and indirect jobs will be supported during construction with a further 700 ongoing roles created across retail, services, education and hospitality.

• In 2020, the 3.6-hectare site at Forestville was purchased by the state government.
• In 2022, a consortium led by Commercial Retail Group with Peet and Buildtec were named as the successful proponents following an Expression of Interest process to identify a visionary development partner to redevelop the site.
• In November 2024, the first of 71 townhouses were released for sale by Peet, marking the first residential release in the development.
• In September 2025, a reconfiguration of the project’s master plan was released for community consultation. At the same time it was announced that almost two-thirds of the townhouses, which started construction earlier in the year, had sold.

The Forestville site has a rich industrial and manufacturing past, a history of transformation and deep connection to the Kaurna people.

The Kaurna people are the Traditional Owners of the land. The development consortium are committed to meaningful engagement with the Kaurna community, ensuring their culture and ongoing connection to Country are respectfully acknowledged and represented throughout the development.

Community feedback has played an important role in shaping the vision for the Forestville development and will continue to inform the project as it progresses. In 2021, Renewal SA undertook online community engagement to better understand the community’s connection to and interest in the area. Insights gathered through this process helped inform the development of a draft master plan, which was then presented to the community in 2022 at the Locale Forestville community drop-in session.

Following further refinement, a revised master plan was prepared and lodged with the State Planning Commission for assessment. The proposal was publicly notified via the PlanSA Portal until 8 October 2025, providing the community with an opportunity to review the plans and make submissions.