Abandoned plans for a luxury 220 apartment high-density development on the old Channel Seven site in Gilberton have been replaced with a more modest proposal.

The $180 million “45 Park” development on Park Terrace Gilberton was axed by Watersun Developments in March this year after it failed to sell off the plan.

Watersun refunded $1.5 million in deposits and payments while they worked on an alternative.

The new plan, titled “Gilberton Park”, is a much more modest proposal and has been approved by Walkerville Council.

Earthworks on the site began two weeks ago.

The new plan proposes 121 dwellings including two three-storey detached residences, three-storey townhouses, single level apartments and four-storey walk-up apartments. The previous plan included an apartment block of nine storeys.

The residences, apartments and townhouses are spread around 40 separate allotments.

Walkerville Council approved the earthworks in isolation.

“As part of a previous proposal for the development of the land which has now been abandoned, Development Approval was granted for substantial remedial earthworks required to stabilise the land such that it can be developed for residential purposes,” council documents state.

“The applicant seeks the panel’s approval to divide the site into 40 allotments (38 of which constituting additional allotments), together with the construction of one road and two lanes to be vested in the council as public infrastructure.

“The application includes the following elements:

• Nineteen allotments divided into two groups of eleven and eight. These allotments will face Park Terrace, and will be afforded a rear frontage to ‘Public Lanes 1 and 2’ respectively. These allotments will be mostly 4.5 metres wide 14.5 metres deep – an area of 65 square metres.

• Twenty allotments fronting the proposed public road with areas of between 193 square metres and 466 square metres.

• One allotment which is 3,785 square metres in area that lays centrally within the proposed development.

• A 10 metre wide public road; and two 6 metre wide ‘Public Lanes’.”

It’s been a rough ride for the Gilberton project since it was announced in early 2012.

45 Park director Mick O’Connor told InDaily in late 2012 the apartment market was a tough nut to crack in Adelaide.

O’Connor’s successful plea to be included in stamp duty tax concessions announced by the State Government in June 2012 hadn’t helped either.

“While there has been very strong interest in the product … the reality is the buyers are looking for certainty on valuation of new property and they haven’t got that [with apartments],” O’Connor said last year.

“They are reading plenty of negative stuff in the newspaper and talking to their friends and the whole thing is in a bit of a downwards spiral.”

45 Park, which has open space and a Linear Park frontage, had been aimed at people over the age of 45 looking to downsize into quality apartments, and investors.

“I think as soon as press starts to become more positive than negative, people will realise the world is not going to end and property close to the CBD, like this, will never drop.”

Stamp duty concessions for off-the-plan, inner-city apartments included in the June 2012 State Budget were extended to high-density developments in Bowden and Gilberton as the project struggled to sell.

“We have high ambitions for a vibrant city and these two excellent developments at Bowden and Gilberton are contiguous to the riverbank along the Linear Park and will help breathe life into the city centre,” then-Housing Minister Pat Conlon said.

“This is one way of encouraging more people to move into the centre of Adelaide, turning it into a cultural, innovative and exciting place to live and work.”

By March 2013, the dream had faded and the notion of easy-to-sell high density developments close to the CBD took a hit.

Just how much interest there will be in the modified version of the Watersun Gilberton Park project remains to be seen, as it has yet to go the market.

Developers and agents for the project have not returned phone calls from InDaily.