Village for Adelaide's Tonsley Innovation District combining industry, research, education, residential

Townhouses at Tonsley Village within the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide's southern suburbs to complement its industry, research and education components.
Image courtesy Tonsley Innovation District

Tonsley Innovation District’s aim to be an experiment in future trends for work, life and play was deepened by having the Tonsley Village incorporated into the former  car manufacturing plant site in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

Tonsley Village was part of the original vision for the district as a vibrant mixed-use precinct that encompassed industry, research, education and residential. Peet Limited was selected from expressions of interest called by the South Australia government’s agency Renewal SA to buy and develop an allotment on the western side of the award-winning Main Assembly Building or MAB.

Peet planned to build 850 apartments and townhouses, housing about 1,200 people in Tonsley Village. The resident area would have a Village Green central reserve. A supermarket, speciality shops, cafes, restaurants and offices, set among extensive landscaping, was also planned for Tonsley Innovation District by Renewal SA with Peet to buy the 1.1 hectare of land and develop it for retail and mixed use. The allotment was next to Tonsley’s main western entrance and the landscaped Western Plaza and on the main thoroughfare leading to Clovelly Park railway station. The vision was for office spaces to be built above the retail outlets, enabling workers to take advantage of the cafes and restaurants.

In 2022, Tonsely Innovation District had a workforce of around 1,700 more than the total employed at the p=former Mitisubishi car manufacturing plant it replaced from 2012.