An Adelaide-born sustainability entrepreneur is looking to bring a bold new vision for the city’s skyline to life, with plans for a $210 million hotel and mixed-use tower designed to rethink how buildings are made.
Hotel Optimismo is a proposed 32-storey development from Finding Infinity, the sustainability consultancy founded by Adelaide-born Ross Harding, who has spent years working internationally on projects exploring how the global infrastructure industry can become more sustainable.
Now, he’s bringing that thinking back to his hometown, with a project that aims to put sustainability at the centre of a new kind of city building.
“South Australia is already leading the energy transition, the buildings haven’t caught up yet,” Ross said.
“Adelaide is the right scale to prove a new way of building can work, and the timing is right because the industry knows the old way is getting harder to justify, on cost and on outcomes.”
Having grown up in Adelaide, Ross says the development also carries personal significance.
“I always wanted to do a project there to give back to the city somehow.”
The proposed tower would span 18,976 square metres, with 228 hotel rooms across 18 levels, seven office levels, a dedicated wellness floor, a restaurant and ground-floor retail.
But it’s the building’s proposed construction that sets it apart.
Finding Infinity intends to use mass timber throughout the above-ground structure, with concrete confined to the basement. If delivered as envisioned, the project would offer a striking example of how alternative building materials could shape the next generation of hotels and commercial developments.
“Timber is grown rather than mined, it’s prefabricated off site, and it’s lighter, faster and quieter to build,” Ross explained.
“What the industry needs to rethink is treating environmental performance as an optional extra that gets cut when budgets tighten. It should be designed in from day one, exceed the minimums, and stack up financially.”
Beyond its construction, Hotel Optimismo is intended to offer something different from a traditional hotel, with spaces designed to attract Adelaide locals as well as visitors.
“Check in as you are. Check out Optimismo,” Ross said.
“Hotel Optimismo is a destination in its own right, not just somewhere to sleep.”
Rather than a conventional lobby, the ground floor is envisioned as a lively hospitality destination, with a café and bar extending onto the street and creating somewhere people can gather throughout the day.
“You arrive into a ground floor that lives like a hospitality venue, a cafe and bar that spills out onto the street. It’s designed to connect with the street and create real atmosphere around the building, a place to eat, drink and linger, with aperitivo on the footpath, open to the whole city.”
Above this, several floors of boutique retail would focus on circular products and South Australian design, showcasing locally made pieces intended to last.
The restaurant would celebrate South Australian produce, food and wine, operated by locals, while a dedicated wellness floor is planned to introduce a different kind of experience to the CBD.
“The wellness floor is something else again, progressive and unmistakably Australian, a kind of wellness experience you won’t find anywhere else.”
The development would also incorporate boutique office spaces, allowing tenants to access the building’s hospitality and wellness facilities throughout the working day.
“The idea is that you work from a building that gives you everything a hotel does. Meet your guests in the ground floor cafe, take them to lunch or dinner in the restaurant, finish with an aperitivo on the street, or run your workshops and meetings in the wellness space.”
As for the accommodation, Ross is envisioning rooms that prioritise simplicity, comfort and thoughtful design over unnecessary extras.
“Compact and calm, stripped of everything unnecessary. No excess, no waste, just beautifully considered space with a great feeling in it. Look east and you’ve got the Adelaide Hills. Look west and it’s the coastline.”
While the vision is ambitious, Hotel Optimismo remains in the planning stage, with the exact Adelaide CBD site yet to be publicly confirmed.
Finding Infinity has previously outlined plans to raise $56 million in equity, with the project now approaching its next stage.
“We’re ready to lodge for planning, and we’re in conversations with builders, hotel operators and investors,” Ross confirmed.
He acknowledges that making the development commercially viable in Adelaide presents its own challenges, particularly compared with Australia’s larger capital cities.
“Adelaide doesn’t command the rent premiums of Sydney or Melbourne, so the project has to compete at market rates, and anything above that is a bonus. Bringing the right investors and partners together around something new is the other big one.”
Despite those challenges, Ross believes Hotel Optimismo has the potential to put Adelaide on the international stage as an example of how the construction industry can evolve.
“It’s pretty exciting that South Australia could be positioned as the world leader in the next generation of construction, and put on a global stage saying, we’re here, we’re doing it, we’re not waiting for the industry to change, we’re building it.”
Beyond its environmental ambitions, he hopes the project will celebrate the businesses, creativity and hospitality that make South Australia distinctive.
“It’s also an amazing opportunity to showcase the best of South Australia: product and furniture design, food, wine, hospitality, and the businesses in our state with a real purpose for the future, all brought together under one roof.”
For Ross, the ultimate goal is to create somewhere that feels distinctly Adelaide, while giving locals another reason to spend time in the city.
“I love Adelaide, and one of its greatest opportunities is having more destinations that bring the amazing people in this city together.”
Hotel Optimismo
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