Lutherans get $50m+ windfall for their college site

“North Adelaide mega-site sells in $50m+ blockbuster deal” is how realestate.com.au pointed to their story of the Lutheran church selling their college site. This was no case of real estate hype. Virtually a whole block of North Adelaide had been put on the market, and most of it had been snapped up by one buyer, getting hold of nine of the blocks on offer. Chris Diamantis, described as a developer of high-priced homes, emerged with most of the site.

The heritage-listed Hebert Hall went for $15m to one of three other un-named buyers.

So it is clear that the end game for the Australian Lutheran College (ALC) site will end up as an enclave for the rich with Daimantis telling realestate.com.au “So I say there would be at least 50 new homes … and we’re hoping to pitch the price point between $3.5m and $4.5m, once we’ve established final design.”

But the bigger news for Christians is that the Lutheran denomination will be cash-rich but college-poor. The college did not have the students to support it, and the staff were asked to go part-time — and many returned to pastoral ministry as a result. UPDATE: Reader Heidi Hultgren has corrected this issue -see her full FB comment on our page, which includes, “Of the seven full-time faculty members who were there two years ago, two have now retired, and one is about to retire. Three have gained professorships overseas. One is still interviewing for academic positions but leaving Australia is difficult due to family circumstances. He has been living off half a pastors salary for almost two years with an unchanged job description. (LCA lecturers are considered pastors and paid as such regardless of qualifications.) One of the lecturers who has secured an academic position overseas did take a temporary call to a church for a few months, but aside from that none of the lecturers have taken calls to churches. ALCs well qualified former faculty has been replaced almost exclusively by adjuncts. There are currently no full time ordained faculty aside from the principal.”

Last year ALC changed from the full-time model with students living on campus, in the years when it was known as Luther Seminary, to a “distributed” education mode. Some more conservative voices in the denomination also see this as a move away from the traditional theological conservatism of the Lutherans.

The imposing Bluestone building with a clock tower on Jeffcott Street, called HebartHall by the Lutherans, has played a significant role in South Australian Christian history. It began life as the North Adelaide Grammar School but became an interdenominational missionary training school called Angas College. After World War I, the supply of students dried up, and the Lutherans bought it in 1922. Since then, the Lutherans have spread across most of the large block surrounded by Jeffcott, Ward, Archer and Walter Streets.

UPDATE: Reader Rowland ward commented “You mention Angas College which was named for its originator, John Howard Angus, pioneer pastoralist and philanthropist. It was used by Presbyterian Rev. W. Lockhart Morton as an interdenominational Bible College under that name from about 1899. Benson Barnett who founded SBMC was there for a time in 1915 as the College was failing. It’s assets came to what is now Melbourne School of Theology in 1932.”

The Lutheran website gave reasons for the sale: “ALC has served the church well from its North Adelaide campus for many decades. The campus is fondly remembered by students and teaching staff as a hub of Christian community and personal growth. However, the North Adelaide campus is now largely under-utilised with very limited use of some buildings. The cost of maintaining the site is approximately $400,000 per annum.”

The Lutheran sale follows a trend of religious retreats in North Adelaide. Across Ward Street is Bishopscourt, the former residence of Adelaide’s Anglican Archbishops, which fetched more than $7 million when it was sold three years ago.