This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Apple Isle is set for one of its biggest ever property transactions, with the Schwartz family’s Trawalla Group looking for more than $300 million for the Parliament Square mixed-use development in Hobart.
Trawalla Group has developed the property over seven years in partnership with Citta Property Group and Qualitas.
Parliament Square is on a 7,700 sqm site covering almost an entire CBD block and comprises a five-star hotel, two office FJMT-designed buildings of 17,300 sqm and retail space.
The office component is directly connected to Parliament House and leased to the Tasmanian government until 2037. One building was completed in 2017 and the other will be finished later in the year.
The Tasman Hotel is due for completion in October and will be managed by the Marriott Group and feature 152 rooms styled by interior designer Joseph Pang of JPDC. Its opening will follow that of the Vibe, Crowne Plaza, and Australia’s first Mövenpick, all in the CBD already this year, bringing nearly 600 rooms to the city’s hotel offering.
Alan and Carol Schwartz are hoping to capitalise on the rebound in domestic tourism that had sparked a boom in popularity and profile of the state in recent years. Tasmanian government figures showed visitor spending in the March quarter was 29% than the same period in 2019.
The Tasmanian government netted more than $30 million early last year from the divestment of Elizabeth Street Pier on the Hobart waterfront. The government’s 91% share of 4 Franklin Wharf, taking in a two-storey commercial building of 61 strata titles, including 56 serviced apartments, conference centre and hospitality venues, sold to an interstate private investor with substantial investments already in the state.
In the middle of 2019, high profile Tasmanian families, including the Rockefeller, Newton and Farrell families, acquired the 4.5 star, 114-room MACq 01 Hotel, a short distance from Mac Point, for about $50 million from developer Vos Group.
Singaporean group Fragrance earlier this year disposed of a controversial Hobart site that formed part of its $230 million plans to build the city’s two tallest towers. The 3,009 sqm parcel near the corner of Brooker Highway and Macquarie Street was earmarked for a 495-room hotel building rising 75 metres. At the same time, it also submitted plans for a 400-room hotel at 28 Davey Street standing 120 metres.
One year ago it added the Devonport Waterfront Hotel to its Tasmanian holdings in a $40 million deal. Vendor and builder Fairbrother had just started construction of the 187 room hotel, on the former site of the Best Street Harris Scarfe store.
Back in Hobart, work has started on the metropolitan region’s first neighbourhood shopping centre development in more than a decade Tipalea Partners’ $35 million Glebe Hill Village is on the intersection of the South Arm Highway and Pass Road in the beach-side town of Howrah.
