Abstract: The Tonsley Redevelopment Project in Adelaide is arguably the most ambitious urban renewal initiative in Australia today. Tonsley is viewed as an integral investment in the future of Adelaide ensuring that it is more resilient in the face of high cost operating environments for industry, finite natural resources, demographic shifts, and competing value systems while enabling new systems of representation, new modes of communication, and potential new forms of capital. Using the Tonsley Redevelopment Project as a new case study, this paper seeks to contribute to the current discussion on urban renewal and the making of competitive cities through a critical examination of the role of ‘innovation clusters’ and the intersection of place and productive processes as the basis to renewal strategy.