Launceston will be brought into a "new era" and a building in the heart of Swansea will be transformed as a Northern Tasmanian developer moves forward with plans for heritage-listed properties.
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Red Panda Property Group will transform the Morris' General Store at Swansea, a property that has only changed hands twice since it was built in 1838 into townhouses, a boutique hotel and a wine bar.
The group has also lodged plans to redevelop the former TasTAFE site at Wellington Street, Launceston, also a historic site.
Chief executive officer Andrew McCullagh said the near-simultaneous development of two heritage-listed properties came about by chance.
"I didn't realise the TAFE building was listed when I bought it," Mr McCullagh said.
"I probably should have had an inkling, but I didn't really notice."
The property developer said his plans for both sites were carefully considered as owning and developing historic buildings came with a high degree of responsibility.
"You've got to do the right thing by the property, it doesn't cut the mustard if you don't these days," Mr McCullagh said.
"Then you've got to get an outcome that justifies the site, and will take through the next 200 years.
"I try to engage with the high quality consultants are in that space. I can give them my vision of what we want to do, and then they've got to fine tune the bits and pieces of how the old and new sort of integrate together."
The Swansea development was approved by the Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council at its October meeting, and Mr McCullagh said he was eager to do the old general store justice.
"The Morris one is extraordinarily special," Mr McCullagh said.
"You've got an amazing history and (currently) you've got a supermarket sitting in the front of a beach in the centre of town."
In Launceston, Mr McCullagh plans to transform the old TasTAFE into a mixed-use dining and residential precinct, and a multi-storey hotel partly inspired by CHIJMES in Singapore - a heritage church converted into a boutique retail complex.
The project has been split into two stages, with the first encompassing the dining and residential development.
Mr McCullagh said this had been done to ensure the project could go ahead even if the hotel generated controversy, and as such required two development applications for the one project.
However, he said a decision by the City of Launceston council to reject his request to waive the fee on one of the applications was "horrifying" and defied "common sense".
The second stage would not impact any heritage-listed buildings, and Mr McCullagh said he was optimistic the public would embrace the development.
"We've been sympathetic to what's been going on in the public arena for the last four or five years," he said.
"I don't see why there should be too much resistance."
Mr McCullagh said the venture had attracted interest from a "high-level, internationally acclaimed" hotel chain however he could not say who due to a confidentiality agreement.
He said the project, combined with other developments like the Seaport, the Gorge Hotel and one pitched for the old Alfred Harrap & Son building, would cement Launceston's position on the world stage.
"People should be excited about what we've got lined up down at TAFE," Mr McCullagh said.
"I think it will change the whole dynamic of the town.
"If you start creating these buildings and this sort of thing, it'll actually go through the next level. There's really exciting stuff going on at the moment and Launceston's entering a new era."
Consultation on the project at 10-16 Wellington Street, Launceston is open until Tuesday, November 7.
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