$250m hotel developments to change Hobart skyline

TWO hotels that will change the Hobart skyline are planned by the Singaporean group Fragrance.

A digital image of Fragrance Group’s proposed hotel at 2-6 Collins St, Hobart. Picture: SUPPLIED

TWO hotels that will change the Hobart skyline are planned by the Singaporean group Fragrance.

A towering hotel, 120m tall with five-storey high sky gardens, is planned for 28-30 Davey St.

The five-star, 400-room hotel will be linked by a skybridge to the waterfront, eliminating the need for pedestrians to cross Davey St.

Digital image of Fragrance Group's proposed hotel at 28-30 Davey St, Hobart. Picture: SUPPLIED.

At a press conference in Hobart on Monday, Fragrance and Tasmanian architectural firms Xsquared and S. Group announced they also plan to build a 1000-seat conference centre and 75m high, 20-storey, 495-room hotel on the site of the old Roberts building at 2-6 Collins St.

This building will also be linked by skybridge to Macquarie Point.

Along with a hotel currently being built in Macquarie St the Fragrance group’s proposed investment in Hobart totals more than $250 million.

Development applications for both new buildings will be lodged with Hobart City Council this week. The two buildings will be the tallest buildings built in Hobart if they get the go-ahead.

An artist’s impression of the sky bridge from Franklin Square to the Davey St Hotel. Picture: Xsquared Architects

A digital image of the hotel currently under construction in Macquarie Street by developer Fragrance Group.

Fragrance Group head James Koh said the Fragrance Group 296-room room hotel already under construction, the two new developments and a further development in the early stages of planning represented an investment of a quarter of a billion dollars.

Mr Koh said the proposed new developments would generate direct and indirect employment of more than 1200 new jobs during construction and ongoing employment of up to 1000 fulltime jobs.

He said the developments would help meet current and future hotel accommodation needs in Hobart and Fragrance would undertake extensive marketing to significantly grow visitation to Tasmania.

Project developers, from left, Fragrance Group head James Koh, Peter Scott from X Squared Architects, and Samuel Haberle from S. Group architects. Picture: JENNY CRAWLEY.

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO Luke Martin said the significant size of the hotels would prompt a lot of discussion within the community and tourism industry.

“Both projects are not intended to open for at least five years, which should alleviate some industry concerns about over supply in the Hobart accommodation market over the next few years as a series of other new hotel developments come online,” Mr Martin said.

“Both these projects will obviously now need to be considered by the Hobart City Council through its planning processes, and all stakeholders will have the opportunity to contribute to that process.”