University of Tasmania sells Allurity Hotel to Fragrance Group

The University of Tasmania has sold a second accommodation holding in the CBD, this time offloading an asset to Singapore-based company, Fragrance Group.

Lifts and airconditioning at the Allurity Hotel in Bathurst Street were not working due to an extended power outage in Hobart city. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The University of Tasmania has sold the Allurity Hotel building in Hobart’s CBD to Singapore-based company, Fragrance Group.

UTAS snapped up the building, at 96 Bathurst Street, which was known as the MidCity Hotel, in 2018 for student accommodation for $23.5m.

It sat empty for two years, before it was leased to Vision Hotels, which signed a five-year lease in 2021.

The hotel provider initially operated as ‘Pure T Hotel’, before it was rebranded ‘Allurity Hotel.’

UTAS (University of Tasmania) bought MidCity Hotel in 2018. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

The 122-room hotel was sold on September 18 for $25.3m, a sale which settled this week.

University of Tasmania deputy vice chancellor Craig Barling said there was strong interest in the property.

“Following the Covid-19 pandemic and the opening of our new 422-bed student accommodation facility in the city, we put two CBD hotels on the market because they were

no longer needed to support access to education,” he said.

“ … with proceeds to be invested in upgrades of the University’s learning and research facilities, in particular the redevelopment of IMAS Taroona.”

It’s not the university’s first sale to Fragrance Group, which added the Conservatorium of Music building on Sandy Bay Road to its portfolio in 2017.

It had plans for a 45-unit apartment block at the site, but the building has so far sat empty.

Artists impressions of the proposed development to replace the Conservatorium of Music on Sandy Bay Road, Hobart by the Fragrance Group. Scanlan Architects. Redevelopment / Plans / Artist impressions

The sale of the Allurity Hotel is the University’s second recent CBD accommodation sale: Last month it was revealed it had sold the former Fountainside Hotel to the state government for $16.5m.

Homes Tasmania purchased the 50-unit facility, to use it as accommodation for health workers.

Colony 47 had its eye on the building, hoping to convert it into youth accommodation, but its bid was rejected.