Once in a lifetime opportunity lost

Ironic that a Tasmanian Greens Alderman (On TT: Anti-development whingeing, HERE) would come out so strongly defending a development that is the result of what can only be described as a special deal between the Government and the Uni, and a development that will, in affect, restrict public access to that particular part of the Hobart waterfront forever!

The issue from our industry’s point of view is that the site was simply handed over to the university without any testing of the commercial market or the opportunity for any other options for developing the site to be considered.

The specific site of PW2 offers possibly the greatest market appeal for development and commercial investment in Tasmania, but there was no attempt to maximise the return to the Tasmanian taxpayers for the site or even provide a fair and open process for developing the site.

Apart from this lack of due process, my frustration is that this once in a lifetime opportunity to link Salamanca, our number one visitor destination, to the waterfront through some kind of mixed use commercial and hospitality development has now been lost and instead we’re going to have a bunch of offices and laboratories built that permanently close that part of the waterfront to the public.