New plan needed for future of Treasury Building, tourism chief

The government has given an emphatic answer to calls to act on the ‘amazing ideas’ for the future of an iconic Hobart heritage site.

Plans to find a new future for the Hobart’s Treasury Building should be resurrected to breathe new life into the city-centre precinct, the state’s tourism chief says.

But the call has been given short shrift by the government.

Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania CEO Luke Martin says private investment in the site represented a great opportunity for Hobart.

Former Treasurer Peter Gutwein announced an expression of interest process for the precinct in August 2018.

The eight heritage-listed buildings in Franklin Square have been in public hands for nearly 200 years having served as the state’s first Supreme Court, a police station and cells, a post office, the executive building and as a tourist bureau.

Nine “significant” registrations of interest in Hobart’s Treasury buildings were received but the process was put on hold in May 2020 amid the Covid-19 shutdown.

Luke Martin CEO Tourism Industry Council Tasmania is hoping to revive a previous push to sell the old Treasury Building in Hobart believing it would make and ideal boutique hotel. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Mr Martin said it was time for the process to be restarted.

High-end accommodation was an obvious use for at least part of the site, he said, but a reimagining could involve mixed use.

“There were some amazing ideas that came through that public debate, around libraries, galleries, public spaces – it doesn’t just need to be commercialised,’ he said.

“Surely given the perilous state of the state’s finances, the government has a responsibility to fully test a proper process, rather than what I think they’re going to do, which is have to throw a shedload of public funding in those buildings to make it a more comfortable office for the Treasury.”

Treasurer Peter Gutwein and Premier Will Hodgman in front to the Treasury Building which under the 2018 Tasmanian state budget was to be sold. Picture: Richard Jupe

Mr Martin pointed to the Parliament Square development as a successful redevelopment of underused heritage buildings.

“The extraordinary success of Marriott Tasman, a beautiful repurposing of historic buildings … has created vibrancy in that part of Hobart and private investment,” he said.

“The choice is creating a genuine opportunity for private investment to create a new vibrant precinct for Hobart similar to what the Marriot has done or it’s a choice of throwing a lot of public funds at heritage building.

“Why wouldn’t we consider opportunities around the library or the visitor centre or various other ideas that the public were putting forward during that process?”

Treasurer Michael Ferguson had no time for the plan.

“The government put off sale plans for the Treasury Buildings indefinitely at the outset of Covid and has no intention to revisit these plans,” her said.

“The Treasury Buildings in Hobart and the Public Buildings in Launceston are iconic, public, heritage assets and as Treasurer I am determined to keep them in public ownership.

‘We encourage those with a love of our built heritage to explore the buildings when we open them to the public through the annual Open House Hobart program.”

The Treasury Buildings are now home to more than 200 public servants from the Department of Treasury and Finance and the Tasmanian Economic Regulator.

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