Education campuses, studios and work spaces for businesses in the creative and tech industries could soon form part of a groundbreaking new precinct development in Launceston's CBD.
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Creative Property Holdings, a sister company of education organisation Foundry, has announced it has secured investment from the mainland to reinvigorate a site in the city centre.
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A detailed announcement about the proposed development and its location is expected to be made in coming weeks.
Foundry's founding director Chris Billing said he expected the development to create new jobs and firm-up the position of Foundry which has faced difficulties in a competitive education market and with the impact of COVID-19.
"Disappointingly this has included issues such as delayed payments to creditors and staff," Mr Billing admitted.
"Unfortunately Foundry and our staff have had to pull together in difficult circumstances to grow the business and ensure we maintained jobs."
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Mr Billing said the model of education Foundry provided - partnering with universities to create content and deliver it - was uncommon in Tasmania.
"This has meant that in trying to bring these opportunities to Tasmania, we have had to combat roadblocks at every level, manage changes to partnerships, and manage criticism -both reasonable and unfounded - and uncertainty," he said.
"We are so grateful to the stakeholders, partners and staff who have remained with us on what has been a trying journey to get to this point."
Mr Billing said mistakes had been made and the buck stopped with him.
"I will be honest in saying at times we questioned whether the best path would be to give up and shut our doors - a fact we related to our staff.
"But we decided to open up and speak directly to regulators on how we could keep the doors open, keep jobs and keep going.
"We can never say every decision was the right one and we have learnt a great deal and made mistakes along the way."
Mr Billing said the business finally reached a turning point this week.
"The light at the end of this tunnel is that we have secured significant investment based on the education and partnership successes we have and our modelling going forward.
"Alongside the coming detailed precinct development announcement this provides the turning point for Foundry and our sister company."
He said an immediate priority would be "ensuring a clean slate with creditors and staff, in terms of payments and entitlements".
"We don't shy away from that accountability, as passionate members of the Tasmanian community ourselves, our leadership team believe in scrutiny as much as any other citizen.
"This is why, as we prepare to celebrate the results of a tough journey, we do so with humility, as it is our desire to bring the community with us on this journey."