The State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) on Wednesday declined the Adelaide Development Company’s (ADC) eighth request for a time extension on its bid to construct a commercial office tower with ground floor shops behind the vacant 109-year-old Gawler Chambers on the corner of North Terrace and Gawler Place.

The development was first granted planning consent in 2012 but no work has commenced on site, with the ADC given seven time extensions to start construction on the tower.

Planning consent for the project expired again on July 31.

Plans for an office tower behind the Gawler Chambers have been in a holding pattern since 2012. Image: ADC/Matthews Architects

The ADC in July applied for another six-month extension until January 31, 2023, citing ongoing negotiations with a “major interstate investor and partner company” to tenant the office tower.

The company argued extending planning consent would “aid in finalising our negotiations with this investment group” and “minimise the risk of losing the commitments and progress that has been inputted to date”.

But the SCAP was advised by government planner Gabrielle McMahon to reject the extension request because “significant time” had passed since the project was first awarded planning consent.

She advised that it would be “considered likely that there would be a different design solution for a development assessed on the site undertaken in today’s planning and building legislation”.

“Given the time that has passed and legislative changes that have occurred, it is recommended that the proposed EOT (extension of time) should not be supported,” McMahon wrote in her planning report.

Heritage SA and the City of Adelaide also expressed reservations about the development although did not file objections to the SCAP.

Minutes of Wednesday’s SCAP meeting published today provided no reason for the panel’s decision to reject the Gawler Chambers plan.

According to the minutes, the panel’s presiding member Rebecca Thomas excused herself from the decision after declaring a conflict of interest “due to her employer providing verbal advice on the development of this site”.

The panel’s deputy presiding member Rebecca Rutschack oversaw the decision.

It’s the second major CBD development the SCAP has rejected this month after plans for a 26-storey, 86.5-metre hotel on the corner of Wakefield and Pulteney Street were thrown out at the SCAP’s last meeting on October 13.

It’s unclear whether the ADC intends to lodge new plans for the Gawler Chambers. A spokesperson for the company said: “We’re disappointed in the decision by SCAP on the Gawler Chambers site. We’ll review the project and consider our options regarding future development.”

The Gawler Chambers are reported to have been vacant since 2004. The brickwork building was constructed from 1913-14 and has been owned by the Roche Family since 1945.

The Chambers were added to the state heritage register in 1991.