A heritage-listed former church in West Hobart dating back to the 1850s is up for sale, with the agent expecting serious offers to start in the high $2 million range.
Originally St John the Baptist Anglican Church and now known as The Holdship, the Goulburn Street building went on the market on Tuesday through expressions of interest.
Alison Rogers from Century 21 Stellar Group said she had already received several inquiries in the opening 24 hours of it being on the market.
“I’m sure that it will garner great interest,” she told Pulse.
“Obviously it is a beautiful building and so there will be those people that wanna do that step back in time, in history and explore the building for what it is.”
She said she had also been talking to a couple of people on Wednesday morning.
“We already have somebody who has thrown a figure around and obviously I can’t disclose that,” she said.
Rogers expected “great interest, just simply because of the opportunities that it opens up for people”.
“I expect that serious offers are going to start somewhere in the, you know, the high two million mark, I would suggest,” she said.
The lisiting says it is “an extraordinary opportunity to own one of the city’s most distinctive historic properties”.
The foundation stone was laid in 1852 and construction was finished in 1856. It was designed by English Gothic Revival architect George Edmund Street, whose work includes the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The listing also says the stained-glass windows include works attributed to London artist Michael O’Connor.
Rogers said the building had been a home and a long-term and short-term rental since it stopped operating as a church.
The sale covers two titles. The main building is currently used as short-stay accommodation and a unit underneath at the front of the building is rented permanently.
The building is also licensed to seat up to 50 people.
Rogers said it could suit a high-end restaurant, a childcare centre, a retail business or a theatre and one tenant had used it as an acrobatic studio.
Being so close to the CBD, she said, the property was “going to provide a perfect opportunity for someone entrepreneurial”.
It is the first church Rogers has had on the market in Hobart.
“I do love what the buildings offer,” she said.
