Stewart Group Plots $128m Tasmania Development Spree

JMC Property Group says it will build a $35-million beachfront hotel at Burnie as part of a broader $128-million investment program across Tasmania over the next three years.

The proposed Strait Hotel would comprise 72 rooms, restaurants, cafes and conference facilities plus 12 luxury apartments on a 3ha site at Camdale Beach near the Cam River mouth.

JMC managing director Errol Stewart said the project would become Tasmania’s first major hotel with direct beachfront access.

“We took a chance on that. We’ve done a fair bit of work on the environmental bit, but we do have to get a scheme amendment to get it up,” Stewart said.

The site holds environmental management zoning, requiring a planning scheme amendment before development can proceed.

Stewart said community support is needed before he will move forward with formal applications.

“We don’t want to have a [Mac Point] stadium deal where half the town are for it and half the town are not. We need everybody on side,” he said.

Environmental concerns have already been expressed regarding the site’s location within a recognised little penguin habitat.

▲ The Camdale Beach site is zoned for environmental management and home to a little penguin colony.

Penguin ecologist Perviz Marker said the Camdale colony had grown five-fold over 30 years, and called the site “one of those safer parcels of land where the penguins have been able to expand into”.

Stewart, managing director of both Stewart Group Tasmania and JMC Property Group, built his property development career alongside running the Jackson Motor Company car dealership business.

He entered development in the late 1990s with Launceston’s Seaport Hotel for $10 million, later adding the $32-million Silos Hotel on the Tamar River to his portfolio.

JMC’s broader development pipeline includes the $20-million City Scape Towers project in Hobart’s Campbell Street that comprises twin five-storey apartment buildings.

▲ Rendering of the proposed Strait Hotel development that would comprise 72 rooms in the building of up to six storeys.

The group is planning residential projects at Launceston and Taroona, as well as a $25-million convention centre at Invermay that would require government co-funding.

Stewart said the proposed Macquarie Point stadium’s approval would influence the scale of developments outside Hobart, however, all of his projects would proceed regardless of the stadium outcome.

Construction timelines suggest work on the Burnie hotel could begin next year while projects are planned to get under way during this year and next, depending on planning approval processes.

▲ Rendering of JMC Property Group’s City Scape Towers at Hobart.

Broader tourism development momentum across Tasmania includes basketball billionaire Larry Kestelman securing government approval to develop a $500-million tourism precinct at Wilkinsons Point near Glenorchy. This would comprise a 12-storey, 250-key hotel alongside retail and entertainment facilities.

And NSW developer NDCO Goulburn has filed a proposal for an 84-key motel at Launceston, comprising 61 rooms across five storeys at a 1525sq m corner site at Cimitiere Street, 800m from the city centre.