Jamie McClurg changes Adelaide city with his vision for Commercial & General property development company
Jamie McClurg (inset) with Commercial & General's SAHMRI2 building (centre) project on North Terrace, Adelaide.
Image courtesy Woods Bagot
Jamie McClurg’s Commercial & General had become one of Adelaide property development powerhouses in the early 21st Century.
The new Calvary Adelaide city private hospital, the award-winning WEST housing estate on the former West Lakes football stadium site, the South Australian police headquarters building on Angas Street, Adelaide, an office tower at 50 Flinders Street, Adelaide, and the SAHMRI2 building on North Terrace, Adelaide, are among Commercial & General’s notable projects in Adelaide city and beyond.
Raised by Irish immigrant parents, Jamie McClurg grew up in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, before obtaining a construction degree at the University of South Australia. His career in property was influenced by his father’s real estate business.
McClurg’s vision for his own business in 1997 was shaped by previous work on construction projects across Australia. He credits Aboriginal women in Arnhem Land for teaching him the value of communication and the importance of having social benefits from his projects.
McClurg created Commercial & General “from nothing” with former university classmate Anthony Catinari. Its Angas Street, Adelaide, police headquarters project in 1910, during the depths of the global financial crisis, was a significant achievement. The Calvary Adelaide hospital was the largest single construction contract by the private sector to unfold in Adelaide’s CBD in the previous 20 years.
The company grew to a workforce of more than 50 at its Adelaide office, with offices in Melbourne and Sydney to tackle a wide spectrum of industrial, office, residential and social infrastructure projects. Commercial & General is also an investment agency.
The company partnered with Australian stock exchange-listed property giant Dexus to create the Healthcare Wholesale Property Fund. With seed assets of about $340m, it had an anticipated potential pipeline of about $445m.
Commercial & General will own as well as build the SAHMRI2 building with its Australian-first centre for photon radiation therapy for cancer. In 2017, McClurg went to the United States to see the benefits of the therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital.
