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Errol Stewart

LAUNCESTON’S biggest car dealership Jackson Motor Company (JMC) has submitted plans for a $20 million development that includes showrooms for up to three franchises and a car museum.

JMC owner Errol Stewart told GoAutoNews Premium that the development of seven hectares would include a Kia and a Volkswagen dealership, the relocation of the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania, a furniture retailer and other buildings.

It also has additional space for the possible future relocation of JMC’s Jackson Ford Launceston dealership and even another showroom.

“The buildings would be over a three hectare site within the seven hectares,” he said.

“It is a major development because we have to put down about 500 pilings to support the buildings because of the soil quality.”

The development is planned for vacant land on Lindsay Street in the near-city suburb of Invermay, near the corner of the East Tamar Highway.

Plans for the development, with artist’s renderings, have been submitted to the City of Launceston.

Mr Stewart said that while the site is expected to have the Kia and Volkswagen showrooms, some “finer details” were still being ironed out.

“We are expecting approval by the City by February,” he said.

“We have the concept in place though we could change the purpose of some of the buildings, for example.”

This could include the inclusion of his Ford dealership, now closer to the CBD on William Street.

He said the automobile museum would be one of the buildings on the site and would sit across the road from his Silo Hotel that opens early next year.

It will be the first move for Tasmania’s iconic car museum, which attracts about 25,000 visitors a year, in more than two decades of operation.

Mr Stewart said he was confident that the new developments would bring more employment and business to Launceston.

“Launceston is economically very strong and this is probably one of the best periods I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” he said.

“There is a large hotel with 108 rooms under construction and a government building underway in the CBD.

“Tourism on the island is also strong and that’s due to the popularity of MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart and in Launceston we have the Hawthorn Football Club which attracts a lot of business in the winter months.

“It’s as good as I’ve seen it.”

Mr Stewart, who last month retired as chairman of the Ford National Dealer Council, has owned JMC since buying it in 1996.

It now has six locations and 10 dealerships and employs about 350 people. The franchises are Ford, Kia, Volkswagen, Isuzu, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Audi in Launceston, Hobart, Burnie and Devonport.

Mr Stewart also developed Bairnsdale Stewart Ford in East Gippsland and developed several projects in Tasmania including the Silo Hotel in North Bank, the Seaport Hotel (opposite JMC Ford, Launceston), the CH Smith site and York Cove.

His daughter Kristy is the dealer principal of Audi Centre Hobart and JMC Hobart City and his son Troy is dealer principal of JMC Automotive Group.

By Neil Dowling

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