Gorge Hotel Launceston: JAC Group lodges DA after 7yr wait

The developers behind an at-times controversial, 145-room Tasmanian hotel precinct have finally lodged their second DA after the first one was shot down. These are the key takeaways.

A developer has relodged its application for a 12-storey hotel precinct in northern Tasmania, more than seven years after planning first began and three years after it was successfully appealed.

TRC Multi Property Pty Ltd, t/a JAC Group, lodged the updated application for its Gorge Hotel development at 123 Paterson St, 125–133 Paterson St and 270 Brisbane St, Launceston, in July, with public notification commencing on Wednesday.

An application was originally lodged and approved by the City of Launceston in mid-2019, but it was appealed successfully by neighbours, leading to the subsequent creation of a specific area plan for the subject site, which allowed the building to exceed Launceston’s height restrictions.

An assessment report into the current application noted JAC Group had already received expressions of interest from “three international hotel operators who are seeking to manage the Gorge Hotel as a 4.5 to 5 star luxury hotel under their international branding”.

“Two of the international hotel operators have opened hotels in Hobart and in one case the Gorge Hotel would be its first hotel in Tasmania,” the report stated.

The hotel would feature “a function/conference area, multiple bars, (a) wellness centre and a multi-level car park” and be developed in two stages.

The first stage would see the lion’s share of the demolition and development work completed.

The existing TRC Hotel and bottle shop would be partially and completely demolished, respectively, to enable the construction of the “hotel, function centre, restaurant, bars and wellness centre, as well as 154 carparking spaces”.

The building itself would have a maximum height of 39m, contain 145 rooms, and consist of a four-storey podium tapering into eight hotel tower levels.

The podium would contain “all key services for the building and the elements ancillary to the accommodation function such as restaurant, reception... function centre and parking.”

The tower’s top floor would house “a rooftop bar and penthouse suites”.

The second stage will follow at a future date as the United Petroleum service station at 123 Paterson St “retains a long-term lease over the property” and is in a “strategically important” location.

Once its lease expires, the service station will be demolished to construct a “corner element” which will “effectively extend the podium” on two levels.

The ground floor would contain retail tenancies, while the upper level would house another conference centre.

A tram which formerly operated between Penny Royal and the windmill adjacent to the Gorge Hotel could be revived “to increase further connectivity and synergy benefits between the two properties,” the report said.

JAC Group redeveloped Penny Royal in 2016 “after it had been left derelict and closed for a decade”.

It now attracts up to 150,000 visitors per annum, the report said.

In the wake of the Tasmanian Planning Commission approving the developers’ area plan, Launceston Heritage Not Highrise, formed in 2019 in response to the original proposal, said it remained a live issue whether the development was too large for the subject site.

“We are all extremely disappointed,” a spokesman wrote on the Tasmanian Times.

Originally published as Gorge Hotel Launceston: JAC Group lodges DA after 7yr wait