Waiting for Hobart’s tallest hotel
by Leon Gettler
Plans to build Hobart’s tallest hotel have been put in limbo with a divided Hobart City Council telling the developer to come back with some changes to the design.
It means the likelihood of the hotel, proposed by Asian-based company Elizabeth Tasmania Pty Ltd on the site of the former Westpac bank in the Hobart bus mall, won’t be known for a month.
Offering 196 five-star rooms, a restaurant, rooftop cocktail bar and pool across two towers, the hotel in Hobart’s central business district would stand 73 metres high, the same height as the Wrest Point Casino,
Council planners had recommended the approval of the hotel which is to be named the Palace Hotel, after the Palace Theatre originally on the site.
But several councillors opposed it.
Aldermen Eva Ruzicka, Anna Reynolds, Philip Cocker, Peter Sexton and Ron Christie all voted it down, claiming it would destroy Hobart’s heritage.
Lord Mayor Sue Hickey and aldermen Marti Zucco, Tanya Denison and Jeff Briscoe voted in favour of the development.
Deputy Lord Mayor Christie was particularly scathing during the meeting.
“I think this hotel was ¬designed to accommodate as many tourists as possible without any consideration given to the beautiful location it’s in,” Alderman Christie said.
“Yes, we need more hotels, but who said we needed them cramming our CBD, suffocating our heritage.”
But Lord Mayor Hickey said the hotel had been designed in consultation with the council’s planning, heritage and engineering officers.
“We were elected for economic development of this city — not just to keep it as a ¬museum. If we keep knocking back investment of this kind — who’s going to be bothered coming here,” she said.
After much debate, the council passed a motion to give the developer an extension of time to consider changing the design.
The councillors passed a procedural ¬motion which will see the application return to council for -reconsideration after April 26.
22nd March 2016
