Sale of Kemp and Denning’s final hardware store site in Hobart marks end of an era
A prime site in the Hobart’s CBD is up for sale, marking the end of an era for an iconic Tasmanian hardware company.
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THE last Kemp and Denning store will be put up for sale, signalling the end of an era for the iconic Tasmanian hardware company, the Mercury can reveal.
The 1.3ha Melville St site in Hobart will formally go on the market at the end of next week, Knight Frank partner Scott Newton said.
“This will be very significant for the future development of Hobart,” he said.
“It is one of the most attractive development opportunities we’ve had the chance to put on the market in many years.”
Mr Newton said the real estate firm would present the property sale in person to potential buyers in Asia.
K&D has been running hardware operations since Andrew Kemp and Victor Denning established a small timber merchant business in Hobart in 1902.
In the past couple of years, the embattled retailer closed stores at Cambridge, Devonport, Glenorchy and Kingston and sold its Mitre10 interests to Tasmania Hardware, trading as Clennetts.
Mr Newton said the Hobart store would be leased back to K&D and it would continue to operate for “a couple of years.”
Last year, chairman Greg Goodman told the company’s annual meeting in Hobart that directors were considering options to improve shareholder value — including the sale of the site.
“To continue hardware operations is not an acceptable yield on the underlying assets,” Mr Goodman said at the time.
Mr Goodman said a Hobart City Council rezoning of the site would enable the construction of a higher structure at the key city site.
It is understood there were previously approaches from Bunnings, Woolworths, Queensland firm McDuck properties and the University of Tasmania.
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