Launceston's former Hotel New York building set for demolition

The developer bought the two lots on York Street, including the Hotel New York building and the adjacent car park, in May 2021 for a combined $3.3 million.

It later lodged development applications for a new 1600-square-metre retail space featuring a two-storey build, with part of the structure overhanging the 34-bay car park.

It is understood that the JAC Group chose to not to retain the floor plan of the 1960s-era building as originally planned and instead opted for demolition for cost reasons.

Construction was previously scheduled to begin in October last year.

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It is understood that demolition work is now set to begin at the end of February.

The retail space was slated to be leased to sports retailer Rebel, which is owned by the Super Retail Group.

It was not clear at deadline how the new demolition plan altered the development.

An attempt was made to contact JAC Group on Friday without success.

The building was originally constructed by the James Boags company and was at the time known as the St James Hotel.

In more recent years, the building operated as the Hotel New York and Mode nightclubs, before being taken over and rebranded as The Empire 44 Bar & Nightclub.

That business was infamously raided by Tasmania Police before shutting down, leading to the arrest of 12 people and the seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and drugs. The lot has remained vacant ever since.

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