00:00It was once a bustling shop front. Now it is home to little more than pigeon poo and crumbling plasterwork.
00:07Those days will soon be at an end, however, when a $15 million redevelopment of the former Birchall's site in the Brisbane Street Mall gets underway in 2026.
00:18Now the front part of the building where I'm standing is heritage protected and that'll remain largely the same after the building is complete.
00:26However, the back isn't. That'll all come down. In its place we'll see a four-storey apartment building built with 21 individual homes and then between the mall and the car park there'll be a laneway.
00:40This will include six so-called micro tenancies, small food and beverage operators, some of them bars perhaps, and some public toilets.
00:48There'll also be some new commercial tenancies fitted for retail or again more food and beverage options.
00:55The project is being delivered through essentially a three-way partnership between the City of Launceston Council, who bought the building for more than $8 million in 2020, construction firm Tas City Building and designers S Group.
01:09We caught up with some of the councillors to see what they were most looking forward to about the redevelopment.
01:14We're most excited for the inner city living. Hopefully that will bring in a lot more nightlife around here as well and the minimum of 21 apartments will be great with the walk through here.
01:28I'm excited about the fact that we're going to actually have something here which hopefully will actually bring more zest and interest to the centre of the city.
01:35Very glad to see something finally happening with the virtual site. It's been a long time coming.
01:39Virtual was a central part of the business of Launceston. As a child I used to sit and read the comics. When I got older I'd read the magazines that were there.
01:48I used to love watching the trains being run around the track that was on the, right around the edge of the building inside the shop.
01:55So it's been shut since 2017 and interestingly it had a dramatic effect on other shops here in the mall because people would often come into Birch's late in the day.
02:04Usually to go and pick up those project materials for their school projects.
02:08When we bought this property a number of years ago it was empty and we bought it with the intent to activate it at that point in time. As most people know that was pre-COVID and there were lots of plans for the virtual car park behind us that were designed in and around to fit with what was going to happen here.
02:26COVID basically blew that out of the water. We now have a chance to move forward with something which is well and truly due for activation.
02:35This is a really exciting opportunity to show the city of Launceston, our community and our rate base that the partnerships in which we can actually partner with and developing and delivering on the strategic priorities of council and our community.
02:51This is that driving example of doing that. We're really excited to see this coming to fruition and we know that it's really based around the priorities of council and really ensuring that there's that vibrancy around the mall.
03:04Creating offerings that are coming through here from food and beverage to inner city living, apartment office space. It's a really exciting time to actually be delivering on what we know that this community has been asking for for so long.
03:18And yeah, really, really stoked and excited to be here today.
03:21And yeah, really, really stoked and excited to be here today.
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