Iconic Tassie nursery for sale for first time

Allan’s Nursery at No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown is on the market. Picture: Supplied

IF you are a green thumb gardener in Tasmania, there’s a good chance you’ve purchased plants from this nursery.

And now after many successful decades, Allan’s Nursery is set to be sold next week.

The Youngtown, Launceston property is listed with Goldman Property and Shepherd & Heap; it will be sold by expressions of interest.

Shepherd & Heap director Ian Singline said potential buyers from Tasmania and interstate had inquired about No.77 Victoria St.

“The campaign is going well, there has been good inquiry on it,” he said.

“The mix between interstate inquiry and local has been about even — it’s certainly captured the attention of the marketplace.”

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

Mr Singline said 84-year-old nursery owner Bill Allan was a well-known and highly regarded figure in his industry.

“People decide to sell for many reasons, and for Bill he is simply ready to retire,” he said.

“Bill has a fantastic team in place who know the business inside-out.

“Some have been with him for many, many years and would be an asset to the next owner of the nursery — and Bill would love it if they stayed on with the business.”

Allan’s Nursery beginnings date back to 1964 when trading commenced in retail markets. At a time, the business employed dozens of staff across multiple sites.

Today, Mr Singline said the wholesale nursery was an efficiently run operation that recorded year-on-year turnover and profit from its statewide customer-base that includes major retailers Bunnings and Mitre 10.

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

Its stock lines include an extensive range of potted colour vegetable and flower seedlings, perennials, herbs, plants, succulents and other lines for the wholesale market with nursery production last year in excess of 18 million seedlings.

No.77 is set on 1.99ha of land only 10-minute’s drive from the middle of Launceston’s CBD and airport, with infrastructure that includes 3000sq m of glass-housing, 900sq m poly-housing, a workshop, machinery shed, potting shed, dispatch shed, a bay for bulk mix materials and an administration block.

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

No.77 Victoria St, Youngtown.

Mr Singline described the location as outer suburbia, which, down the line, could be an attractive future residential opportunity — if desired and if council approved.

“This area was once farmland,” he said.

“But you can see, residential homes now surround the nursery.

“In the last few years, new homes have sprung up everywhere.

“To have 1.99ha in a location like this, that is ‘another value’ that some might see as attractive as high demand for land pushes values higher.

“The site is also very well positioned near a Bunnings store and the new Oakden subdivision.”

Given the 2ha of land, the buildings, nursery infrastructure, plant equipment, the Mercury would expect No.77 Victoria St to fetch a multimillion dollar sale price.

On the open market for the first time, the EOI campaign for the Allan’s Nursery freehold will close on October 20.