A Singapore-based developer says a proposed 13-storey car park and short-stay apartment building in central Hobart would ease pressure on homes being converted into holiday rentals.
Fragrance Group wants to demolish a three-storey office block at 171 Macquarie Street and build the $16 million tower alongside the Ibis Styles hotel next door, which it also owns.
Plans lodged with the Hobart City Council show almost half the building would be used for car parking, with 105 spaces spread across six levels.
Above the car park would be a function room, followed by six floors containing 36 serviced apartments.
The apartments would connect directly to the corresponding floors of the Ibis Styles. Guests would check in at the existing hotel and use its pool and gym.
A 127-square-metre restaurant is also proposed at street level.
The developer’s planning consultant, Ireneinc, says the project would add more short-stay accommodation to the city centre.
“The… apartments will also provide greater accommodation options for guests and enhance the availability of short-term accommodation within the city centre,” its planning report states.
“It is expected the apartments will assist in alleviating demand for single detached short-stay (Airbnb) listings, often in the form of converted residential housing stock.”
The apartments would not have balconies. Planning documents state the average stay is “unlikely to exceed” two or three weeks.
Parts of the tower extend beyond the planning scheme’s amenity building envelope, meaning the developer must provide a public benefit in return.
Rather than public space or toilets, Fragrance has proposed a mural across a large section of the Macquarie Street facade, with the artwork to be chosen through a competition for local artists.
The proposal also includes more parking than the planning scheme allows.
Fragrance argues the extra spaces would address a long-running parking shortfall at the Ibis Styles, which has 225 rooms but only 38 car spaces.
The proposal is open for public comment until September 18 before going to the Hobart City Council for a decision.
