Sale price revealed for University’s purchase of K&D’s CBD site

The price the University of Tasmania paid for K&D’s CBD site has been announced as well as how long the hardware store will remain trading on the site.

K&D hardware store, Murray Street Hobart. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

HOBART’S well-known K&D hardware store site sold for $30 million, it has been revealed.

The University of Tasmania last month announced it had purchased the 1.3 hectare site for student accommodation.

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The sale price for the lot — which covers an entire central CBD block — was revealed on Wednesday after settling earlier in the week.

K&D chair Greg Goodman said the company would continue to trade on the site for the next two years.

He said the final price was an excellent result for shareholders.

“It was a very competitive process. We had six final offers. In the end the University won out.

“We are very happy that we got a desired result for shareholders.

“K&D being a 100-year-old company it was a very good result to have it go to an institution such as the University of Tasmania and stay in Tasmanian hands and benefit the community for many years to come.”

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 few years, the retailer has closed stores at Cambridge, Devonport, Glenorchy and Kingston and sold its Mitre10 interests to Tasmania Hardware, trading as Clennetts.

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The site will house student accommodation, funded through the University’s partnership with investment consortium, Spark.

“The arrangement with Spark ensures private investment meets the need for accommodation, while University resources remain devoted to teaching and research,” a university spokesman said.

The site also will be home to green space and teaching and learning facilities.

It is in addition to the university’s other city accomodation projects – a 446-bed Hobart City Apartments on the corner of Elizabeth and Melville streets and a 420-bed complex being built next door, due for completion at the start of 2021.

The university has annouced plans to develop a city-centric campus in the heart of Hobart over the next 10 to 15 years.

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