Claremont’s new $28 million Glenorchy Sports Centre is halfway built, with completion expected in the middle of 2027.
The centre is at the entrance to Claremont College in Hobart’s northern suburbs.
It will have four indoor courts, including a show court, catering for netball, basketball, futsal, volleyball, badminton, pickleball and wheelchair sports.
It will also have spectator capacity for more than 600 people, three multipurpose rooms, change rooms and a kiosk.
First aid, wellbeing, parent and sensory spaces will also be included, along with a Changing Places facility.
Sport Minister Nick Duigan said the success of Tasmania’s basketball teams was driving demand for more indoor courts. Similar centres are being built in Devonport and Launceston.
“The success of the JackJumpers and now the Jewels is inspiring more Tasmanians of all ages and abilities to get involved in basketball and other indoor sports and we need the facilities to support that growing participation,” he said.
Duigan said the project was on schedule and he had been advised it was “within our budget spending envelope at this stage”.
The timeline has shifted since the project was announced. In 2024, the government said the centre was expected to be finished in 2026.
The target later moved to early 2027 and has been mid-2027 since construction began in March.
According to the government, around 230 contractors have worked on the centre so far.
Philip De Jong, Fairbrother’s manager of construction for southern Tasmania, said around 45 workers were on site and that number was expected to rise to around 60 in the coming weeks as more fit-out trades start.
“We’re on program, we’re on time, works are progressing well towards lockup by Christmas and then into fit-out in the early part of next year, ready for a handover in Q2 of 2027,” he said.
De Jong said the builder’s construction costs were “under control”.
Newly re-elected Glenorchy Mayor Sue Hickey pushed for the centre after the JackJumpers moved their high-performance centre plans to Kingston in 2024.
She said the growing city was “desperate for sporting facilities of all kinds”.
“I think this is going to be an enormous benefit to the community,” she said.
Hickey said the centre would go a long way to meeting the city’s indoor sport needs.
She said the city would also like more football and soccer grounds and cricket spaces, but she was “very aware the budget’s tough”.
“To get a state-of-the-art, purpose-built facility as good as this one, we’re very, very grateful,” she said.
