This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A LARGE pub group is believed to be the new owners of the controversial Welcome Stranger pub site in Hobart’s CBD, which has changed hands for $5.5 million three years after plans for a 13-storey residential tower on the site were rejected by Hobart City Council.
Hexa Group put forward plans for the $30 million project late in 2018, which they said would target empty nesters. The building would have risen 45 metres from the corner of Harrington and Davey streets, and comprise 52 apartments and ground floor retail.
Hobart City Council rejected the application in a seven-to-four vote after their planning offices recommended refusal as the plans did not meet heritage elements of the planning scheme. That was based on the loss of original 19th century historic fabric and the development’s bulk, scale and siting with respect to a listed building.
Council received 800 submissions against the proposal out of the 883 put forwards in total.
Melbourne-based Hexa then lodged an appeal with the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal.
Knight Frank’s Jesse Radisich and JLL’s Will Connolly managed the expressions of interest campaign that closed last month. The site was billed as “an exceptional development opportunity” on a prominent 1,322 sqm corner position in the heart of Hobart’s CBD, opposite St David’s Park and 150 metres from Salamanca Place. Any redevelopment would have view lines through the park towards the River Derwent.
But it appears as though the site will remain home to a pub. The property comprises a three-level brick freehold building with an existing pub and gaming licence and accommodation, plus rear parking accessed via Harrington Street. There is also a small unoccupied cottage fronting Davey Street.
The land has central business zoning that allows for an array of development outcomes such as residential, office, hotel and more.
Hexa Group’s proposal was one of the most controversial development proposals ever put forward in Hobart. Fragrance Group has put forward multiple proposals that have drawn the ire of locals; Singaporean developer Fragrance Group has just won planning approval for a new hotel in the CBD – albeit at a drastically reduced height – five years after initially lodging plans with Hobart City Council.
It’s the second planning success the group has had in 2022. Earlier this year, TasCAT ruled that its $30 million, nine-storey hotel at 179 Macquarie Street could go ahead after rejecting an appeal by Sunset Rock Investments, which owns the Australian Taxation Office site at 200 Collins Street.
Early last year, Fragrance offloaded a 3,000 sqm parcel at 2-6 Collins Street, at the corner of Brooker Highway and Macquarie Street, for $9.5 million after failing to gain approval for a 495-room hotel building rising 75 metres – having lodged the plans at the same time as the Davey Street site.
Public backlash pushed Fragrance to slash the height of Collins Street down to 50 metres, but the plans still received 1,459 representations – all but three against the hotel – in what The Mercury revealed as the highest number of official public comments ever received for Hobart development plans.
