![Three shopfront buildings and the home at 120 Rosevears Drive. Picture supplied Three shopfront buildings and the home at 120 Rosevears Drive. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/H9AemfQ3cDaTrBwqEFxwv/061bdaa6-1b78-46b9-b519-56d58210a5dd.jpg/r635_433_1600_1113_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
An empty fish and chip shop that has intrigued passers-by for decades could finally be primed for development.
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The former Ernie Gatenby's Fish Shop at Lanena - midway between Exeter and Rosevears on the West Tamar Highway - remains embedded in Launceston culture despite being shut for 20-plus years.
The shop is still fondly remembered by former customers, but has also become an iconic landmark for Launceston's cycling community.
The shop forms the end point of the North's most popular cycling route, a 20km stretch along the West Tamar Highway and Rosevears Drive known as the 'Fish Shop Ride'.
Its popularity with riders has led many to conclude the shop would be an ideal spot for a cafe - a prospect that looms more likely than ever after the property hit the market in recent weeks.
Peter Lees Real Estate's Jamie Beaton said he believed a cafe would do "really well" at the site, which was once also home to a petrol station.
"A lot of the cafes up the West Tamar are doing very well," he said.
"I think most people would be really happy with a cafe there."
A price tag of $1,195,000 has been put on the Rosevears Drive property, which also takes in a four-bedroom home and three vacant shopfronts.
One of the shops has been used as a computer store in recent times, while the other sold wooden furniture.
The fish shop has sat vacant since 2002 and still has a menu and prices on the board inside.
The property's owners have had no shortage of offers to rent out the business spaces across the past 21 years, including countless requests left in their letterbox.
Many have enquired about buying the home or shops separately, however, the owners are keen to sell the property as one title.
"They've had people wanting to rent the middle one for a tattoo parlour, [or] people wanting to take up the fish and chip shop again," Mr Beaton said.
"There's a lot of people wanting to start businesses, but they're not wanting to rent it out.
"The usual question is 'can I just buy the shops?' ... if there was a possibility to separate them they would have gone [sold] 10 times over."
The three shop buildings are now zoned low density residential, however, it is understood businesses could operate from the spaces subject to a planning permit.
The Fish Shop Ride has nearly 60,000 registered rides on Strava.
Professional cyclists Bernard Sulzberger and Izzy Flint are among those who have completed the 20.85km segment in 27:30 or quicker.