 
ABOVE: The Supreme Court to be built on the former site of the Commonwealth bank in Parsons Street. AT RIGHT: Dean and Kerry Osborne.
By ERWIN CHLANDA
Eight storeys high, 600 car parks partly underground, and built by a Darwin firm that has its roots in Alice Springs: That’s the new Melanka site story, according to reliable sources.
They were speaking to the Alice Springs News Online on the condition of not being named.
Regarded as the barometer of the town’s future, the former hostel site in the middle of the town, standing empty for years, finally seems to be getting the go-ahead.
Chief Minister Adam Giles mentioned it recently, and the Alice Springs Town Council is understood to have received a behind-closed-doors briefing by Mayor Damien Ryan.
The firm said to be close to clinching the deal is Osborne Family Holdings (OFH).
According to its website it is “a family owned, Northern Territory based company that was established in Alice Springs in 1988.
“It has a proven track record in residential property development and investment.
“The business has continued to expand and owns businesses in both Alice Springs and Darwin.
“The group currently employs over 50 people in the NT,” the site says.
“The group has developed over $100m in residential property in the Northern Territory including Hastings Over Mindil, Parkview Estate, The Links Estate and Rho Court, and completed over $50 million worth of contract work over the past 20 years.
“Hastings Over Mindil, now regarded as the benchmark for quality, resort-style, residential living in Darwin.”
The Melanka project seems set to go ahead in tandem with the Sitzler Building in Parsons Street, the former Commonwealth Bank site. (A new drawing has now been released.)
Also, Paul Graham, of Asbuild, says following successful talks with the Town Council, work on the firm’s project of more than 60 dwellings on the old bowling club site in South Terrace will start before Christmas.
PHOTOS from top: The recent “grand opening” of The Avenue in Darwin, built by Osborne Family Holdings; and – below – a 3D render of the bowling club project.
Monday, November 18, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
Our town needs development, we need the investment, jobs and accommodation.
But what a monstrosity this high rise is, totally mismatched to the architecture of Alice Springs.
Goodbye to our character, our iconic status and yet another step away from A Town Like Alice.
Where can we view the plans for the courthouse? I am trying to find out what they have planned for parking for all of the workers there plus those needed to go to court plus the other shops and cafe etc?
Where are they all going to park?
It’s interesting too how in one Alice Springs paper we have a story on how the Melanka site has stalled in regard to go ahead with building and another saying things are moving along.
This is exactly the sort of thing that the CLP do when they get in – and is the reason they get the boot. Slow learners?
Is it the first of April?
Is it just me that is missing something here?
We are led (by Chief Minister Adam Giles) to believe crime is no longer an issue in Alice Springs, well why on earth do we need to build this god awful new supreme court?
On a similar train of thought (or confusion).
We have a increasing numbers of empty shops in Todd Mall and around the centre of town why do we need to build more shops (which I presume is still part of the Melanka plan)?
The Mayor and council have failed dismally thus far to revitalize Todd Mall, do they have a plan to fill the shops? RENEW Alice what happened to that?
Come on Damien and Adam, get real (quickly), the town dying before your eyes – if you cared to open them.
I think the new year will reveal where we are heading. There a lot of developments in the pipeline but the houses / shops that we have currently aren’t selling / renting. I would think the real estate agents would be concerned or looking for a job on the coast. House prices of 2010 are the same in 2014. Rather than value that should be a worrying signs. The market will correct but hopefully we don’t see panic selling.
Maggie D: What do you mean that the CLP has the cheek to spend some money in Alice Springs instead of Darwin?
I look at this image and I look at Alice Springs as it is today, and I reckon someone is having a lend of themselves.
The anti development brigade are coordinating efforts to condemn Alice to remain a sleepy hollow.
I bet none of you are actual locals, more of the same do-gooder ring ins that are the root of many of the problems we face here. Just when you lot realise your regressive ideas don’t work you bolt back to your inner city self absorbing hovels!
The main reason Alice has gone backwards is the mess left by an incompetent Labor Party that pandered to the likes of the destructive Greens.
Crime spiralled out of control and all we got were poorly thought out bandaid treatments. They blew their budget and future budgets as peace meal projects and absolutely sat on their hands, afraid to make any constructive commitments to mining or other developments.
So NO, the problems we face in the mall and general business confidence is not the fault of Adam or Damien, it is a legacy of those that continue to stifle investment into development.
Every time we have had developments we get the same protesting mantra, yet every time the developments are welcomed and enjoyed by the majority.
Let’s stop listening to the crap of narrow minded zealots from the regressive Labor and Green movements, let’s grow Alice into a more self sustaining significant regional centre.
Is that another white elephant I see in the distance? The town needs tourists to create employment, get it buzzing again, just like the days when Todd Street was a street and people thronged there.
Then the big retailers came to town and and people no longer went to Todd Street and it became a ghost town.
Tourism in the key to Alice Springs. Accommodation place for visitors is the way to go, not housing 600 cars.