TasTAFE Launceston development: Inside massive reUNION District
One of Tasmania’s most ambitious redevelopments is just weeks away from being lodged with council. Expect a 160-room hotel, bars, restaurants and more. See the stunning renders here.
Launceston
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The developer behind one of northern Tasmania’s most ambitious projects, the redevelopment of the shuttered TasTAFE Launceston campus, has christened his new precinct the reUNION District.
Red Panda Property Group director Andrew McCullagh first revealed his nascent plans in April. They have now progressed to the pre-lodgement phase, with a formal development application expected to be lodged with the City of Launceston in the “coming weeks”.
Mr McCullagh, who purchased the site for $6.35m, said the precinct would encompass a five-star, 160-room 5 hotel, a brewery, distillery, and wine bar, and an array of restaurants and cafes.
Also included are 14 boutique apartments which “boast their own private communal space which is something completely new to the Tasmanian and Australian market”.
“It’s like an airport lounge as an appendix to your apartment – up-market apartment living, reaching vast new levels,” he said.
This communal space would include a library, lounge, formal dining room and business area, under Mr McCullagh’s plans.
He said the development would activate an under-utilised portion of Launceston’s CBD.
“This is exciting for Launceston and is set to open up the Gorge area and Royal Park and museum areas. It will create a natural pedestrian and bike flow from the CBD through to Seaport and make Launceston a gastronomers’ dream with these added venues,” Mr McCullagh said.
The external fabric of the campus – which is permanently registered on the Tasmanian Heritage Register – would be maintained “almost 100 per cent”.
Mindful of the ongoing controversy surrounding the height of JAC Group’s proposed Gorge Hotel – council’s recent approval of the project, its second, is likely to again by taken to TasCAT, ACM reported – Mr McCullagh noted reUNION’s hotel tower would be much shorter than JAC’s proposal.
He previously told the Mercury the tower would only be approximately 25m, although the final proposed height will not be revealed until the DA lodgement. It is expected construction would begin in mid-2023.
Mr McCullagh said the redevelopment is expected to come with a price tag north of $50m.
The colourful developer is spinning plates at the moment – he is a mayoral candidate for Northern Midlands in the upcoming local government elections.
He is also mired in a long-running dispute with the current council, featuring an ongoing defamation case and mutual contempt of court claims relating to the action.
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