A boutique hotel trading on its 145-year history is the most likely future for the Boag’s Brewery site, according to the developer helping shape its redevelopment.
Errol Stewart, who has taken on an informal coordinating role, said hospitality was the obvious path for the landmark central Launceston property once brewing stops.
“I think it’ll be hospitality-based, most certainly,” Stewart said.
He said the site’s heritage-listed buildings and riverfront position made it valuable, but the job was beyond any single developer and would need government, council and industry to pull together.
Stewart said it was too early to move until Lion locked in its own plans, but the effort should ramp up once it did.
The main site, which Lion has indicated it will sell, covers nearly two hectares, with a further half-hectare across the road.
His comments came as Premier Jeremy Rockliff announced a plan to lift the economy across the state’s north, with reworking the Boag’s site at its centre.
Rockliff said the state government would not let the property go to waste.
“We won’t allow such a significant site to sit idle,” he said.
The premier said he had avoided putting a dollar figure on the plan, hoping instead to draw fresh ideas out of an upcoming summit.
“I’m not going to limit ideas by putting a number on what potential investments a government such as ours could make,” he said.
He said Lion would hand back the $1 million the state tipped into the $2.5 million brewhouse visitor experience, with that money to be steered towards ideas from the summit.
The state government will host the summit on July 15 to help shape the plan.
The redevelopment talk comes ahead of the brewery’s closure on November 6, ending 145 years of brewing in Launceston and costing 42 jobs.
Brewery owner Lion, a subsidiary of Japanese group Kirin, has pointed to falling beer sales and says the plant has long run well below capacity.
Rockliff said he would head to Japan shortly to put the case to Kirin directly.
“They need to know … that when you make decisions at the stroke of a pen, it has impacts on people, families and communities,” he said.
“And I want to convey that very strongly to the bosses at Kirin, to say that these decisions should not be taken lightly.”
Deputy Labor leader Janie Finlay dismissed the trip as “a joke”.
“We’ve got Lion here in Launceston today. Why doesn’t he go and eyeball them?” she said.
“This government is way out of touch with what’s happening, particularly in the north, but right across Tasmania.”
A government spokesperson said it had stayed in regular contact with Lion and offered support to staff.
