Gold-plated Tassie tourism asset hits the market

The business it houses, Rockwall Bar + Grill is “a mecca”, as Burgess Rawson agent Matthew Wright says. “It’s the place that everyone who comes to Tassie knows about.”

A real measure of its popularity is that bookings for Christmas lunch 2023 opened in January. 

Wright says famous past and current AFL players often dine here. Well, they would because, until last year, the restaurant was operated by its founders, Susan Catchpool and her partner, the big former VFL and AFL ruckman Garry “Bull” Barker, who played in the 1970s and ’80s for Footscray, Sydney and Melbourne.

The couple established Rockwall in 2008 and Wright says that, at one time, a silent partner in the enterprise was the legendary Ron Barassi.

In 2022, when “seeking new adventures”, the couple sold the restaurant business to new operators. 

Twelve months on, and with a guaranteed five-year lease recouping an annual $255,201 plus GST in place (with an option to renew until 2042), Barker and Catchpool have decided to sell the building, which is heritage listed because it was made from sandstone in the spare and functional Georgian style in the 1830s. 

These former warehouses are so tightly held that, when one does come to market, it garners remarkable attention. 

Wright, whose Melbourne agency is working in conjunction with Knight Frank – Tasmania, says that in the week or so since 89 Salamanca Place was listed, “dozens of enquiries have come in, and they include internationals”.

The marketing pitch is certainly aimed at arming a potential offshore buyer with a lot of local knowledge. The building – which sits on a narrow 309-square-metre site and has a loft apartment on its upper level – is close to “some of Tasmania’s best accommodation, restaurants, bars and the famous Salamanca Market”.

It sure is. These include the atmospheric and sophisticated 41-suite Moss Hotel that was partly made out of another similar sandstone warehouse and opened in 2019. Marriott’s more expansive $50 million, 132-room Tasman Hotel opened last year in tricked-up period buildings in nearby Parliament Square.

The warehouse, says the advert, is “600 metres from the Hobart CBD”, while Battery Point, its postcode address, “is one of Hobart’s most prestigious residential areas with a median house price of $1.451 million”.

The upstairs apartment is, according to Wright, a bolthole in the rafters with a separate bathroom, and is incorporated in the present leasing arrangement. If it were a rental, he says the “loft studio” is an absolute bonus.

The mooted new AFL stadium proposed for Macquarie Point will only beef up the value of the location. Wright says the development – a stroll down the wharfside – will become “a multipurpose sporting facility and convention centre” and “Tassie and Hobart are looking at an influx of developments”.

Indeed, the advertising also helpfully adds that, according to CommSec’s State of the States report, “Tasmania has led the nation in key economic drivers nine out of the last 10 quarters to January 2023.” 

The early buzz around this noteworthy building indicates that the remaining weeks of the marketing campaign should lead to a very interesting auction that will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on February 22 at 10.30am.