Hobart’s Art Deco Mercury building listed for sale

Larry SchlesingerFebruary 9, 2012

Hobart’s Mercury Building, with its distinctive white Art Deco façade and the home of Tasmania’s state newspaper, has been listed for sale with offers expected in excess of $6 million.

Built in the 1930s the building, along with heritage-listed Ingle Hall, sits on 3,800 square metres, a third of CBD block at 89-93 Macquarie Street.

It has been listed for sale, with the campaign handled by Scott Newton and Ian Reed from Knight Frank Tasmania. They expect interest to come from local, interstate and international developers.

The Mercury Building was constructed in the 1930s and is easily recognised due to its use of striking Art Deco architecture.

The building is located on the intersection of Macquarie and Argyle streets and has five office floors.

The Mercury has occupied the site since the 1880s.

Ingle Hall was constructed in 1814 as a residence and has Colonial Georgian-era architecture. It now houses a newspaper museum and rented offices.

The buildings provide an approximate net lettable area of 7,700 square metres over five levels.

The Mercury, now part of News Limited, was established on Macquarie Street in 1854 by founder John Davies. It has 45,000 weekday subscribers, a drop of 4.2% compared with a year ago.

Davies Brothers Pty Ltd chief executive Rex Gardner told The Mercury developers were keen to turn the building into residential, commercial or car parking space.

However, the Art Deco facade will remain untouched.

"We know who is already interested but we expect more interested parties to come forward," Gardiner says.

The Mercury is moving in August 2012 to new headquarters at Salamanca Square, which is being developed into something similar to Melbourne's Federation Square.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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