Beachside hotel, conference centre and apartments part of Tasmanian developer's latest plans
Errol Stewart, the businessman behind the Stewart Group and car dealership JMC, launched the plans — totalling more than $100 million in potential investment — in Launceston this week.
But he foreshadowed the possibility of "significant delays" in the planning stages and said he would not pursue plans local communities oppose.
The proposals include a $35 million hotel and apartment complex on the foreshore at Camdale, near Burnie, and residential apartment buildings in Hobart and Launceston, as well as a convention centre at Invermay in Launceston.
Mr Stewart said the Burnie project was the "major" announcement of the suite of proposals.
He said his company bought 3 hectares of coastal land from the Burnie City Council in 2024, where he intends to build the Strait Hotel.
The land is directly across the Bass Highway from an existing JMC car dealership, which he said would also soon undergo a $3 million redevelopment.
But, Mr Stewart said, the company was seeking feedback and engagement from the community before pressing ahead with the plans.
"We'll be saying to the community, 'Do you think this is a good thing, do you really support it?'," he said.
"And if the answer was a strong 'no', we'd have to revise it.
Concerns are already being raised about the Strait Hotel, which would be built on a site which is known little penguin habitat.
Penguin ecologist Perviz Marker said the Camdale penguin colony was a "good news story" as its population had grown by five times in the past 30 years.
"I think this is a fantastic opportunity to leave it as a restored, rehabilitated site."
Mr Stewart said he intended to leave half the site dedicated to the penguin colony, but Dr Marker said that would not be suitable as it was "still a loss of 50 per cent of the penguin habitat".
The site is currently zoned for environmental management, and Mr Stewart said the company would be requesting a planning scheme amendment if the project received positive community feedback.
In a post on Facebook, Burnie mayor Teeny Brumby said Mr Stewart's plans were "exciting".
"Of course, there's still a body of work to be done including permits, rezoning, council applications, and environmental considerations," she said.
"But the concept plans released yesterday offer a glimpse into something quite special for our city."
Launceston Chamber of Commerce chief executive Alina Bain said Mr Stewart's plans outlined a "level of confidence in Tasmania and his optimism for the future".
She said the proposal for a conference centre was exciting, as it would generate visitor numbers to the city, something particularly needed during the winter.
Enthusiasm for a new conference centre in the city has been growing in recent years, and a demand study prepared for tourism body Visit Northern Tasmania earlier this year noted a shortage of accommodation and facilities in Launceston.
Mr Stewart said his company would commit $10 million to such a conference centre, but estimated it would be a $25 million facility that would need government support.
Ms Bain said it was great to see Mr Stewart "stepping up".
"But we absolutely need to see all three levels of government to come together to develop this project," she said.
"It would be a game-changer for the city, and we know that the figures support this."
She said other facilities such as the Launceston airport would need to be upgraded, and that more hotel offerings in the city would also need to be developed.
Mr Stewart's suite of plans includes residential apartment buildings across the state, including in Launceston and Burnie, but he believes demand is greatest in Hobart.
There his plan is for the City Scape Towers — two five-storey apartment buildings on Campbell Street costed at $20 million.
He said he expected demand would "ripple" throughout the state if the AFL stadium at Macquarie Point was realised.
"We'll do our Hobart project irrespective of the outcome of the stadium, for sure, providing we can get a permit," Mr Stewart said.
He said a possible development boom could be likened to the tourist lure Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) had proved to be.
"When MONA got going, everybody came down and said, 'We want to go to MONA,'" he said.
"Then they jumped in their car, and they drove north and south and all over the place. And it was just [a] MONA effect that just rippled through the island.
"And that'll be exactly the same … when and if we get the stadium up."
But Mr Stewart said he was concerned about how the state's current "planning quagmire" may present challenges to his ambitions.
He said he was hopeful that whichever party forms government next would cut red tape to allow for greater "development potential".
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