"The key is to actually get on and do something."
Mr Adams emphasised the members would be privately funding the group's activities and research.
Group member Neil Craig, the main mover behind the Bay Oval cricket ground, said there were a number of civic amenities projects crying out for money and attention.
"They're not going to get funded unless there is a highly co-ordinated and orderly programme to do it," he said.
"We can't do them all in one year, but you might get them done over a five-to-10-year period if there's no wasted resources with people trying to compete for the same chunk of money."
The aim initially was for the group to fund a concise research document to get a realistic sense of total requirements and costs, what the city might look like, and get both community and council buy-in as to the best order to address the needs. The aim was to get a batting order that was right and which everybody was happy with, said Mr Craig.
Holland Becket Lawyers partner and TECT chairman Bill Holland said the group's members had for some time shared the view there was a lack of cohesion around developing civic amenities and a need to co-ordinate private funding efforts.
"We need to rationalise civic amenity demands so it's all coordinated within an overall plan," he said.
Quayside Holdings chairman Michael Smith said the mix of business people involved in the group might change depending on the needs for specific projects.
"We're going to try and explore mechanisms by which social infrastructure might be able to be prioritised and funded without reliance on council having to do it all," said Mr Smith.
Peter Farmer, chairman of Bay Venues, said the group aimed to make it easier to facilitate private contributions to civic amenities, noting that historically amenities that had required private contributions had struggled to get enough horsepower.
"Hopefully this group will bring a bit of process, assessment and due diligence to projects and will be pretty much action focused," he said.
"The local and the national economy is in a pretty sweet spot at the moment and now is the time to be looking at this. Clearly the city needs more facilities - it's a question of prioritising them."