Ubiquitous 'Polites' signs in Adelaide CBD the legacy of tycoon Con's prolific buyup of properties from 1960s

Some of the many "Polites" signs – sometimes mistaken as "Polite" – on properties around Adelaide city centre, from the prolific purchases made by Con Polites (top centre) from the 1960s.

The many blue and white “Polites” signs on buildings in the Adelaide city centre are the legacy of South Australian property tycoon Constantine George Polites.

Born in 1919 at Port Pirie to Greek farming parents, Polities grew up in poverty. He left school at 16 and set up a deli-snack bar. He moved to Adelaide at 19 and worked as a general hand at Woolworths in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, before starting up several businesses of his own.

After moving to Sydney for a few years to get married, Polites returned to Adelaide and made his first real estate purchase in 1959 and continued buying cheap city buildings in the early 1960s, and through the 1970s and 1980s. Polites put a blue-and-white sign with his name on each building. Hindley Street has the most signs.

Polites rarely sold his properties but rented out his huge stock of mainly tired and neglected buildings. He was also a noticeable figure around town, driving a 1977 Cadillac, usually smoking a cigar. In 1992, Polites told The Advertiser newspaper he had always wanted to have his name up in lights but that it wasn’t about ego, rather “a feeling of satisfaction that one has achieved success … And you let people know that you are around.”

Polites died in 2001 at the age of 82. His son George and his grandsons carried on the Princes Polites Group real estate business.

Con Polites's grave at Cetennial Park was excavated in 2016 during a police investigation into a suspicious package – with a dead cat inside a pet carrier– found at  found at an Adelaide home. Police removed that package and said it was not dangerous.