New St Luke's health building rising quickly in Launceston

Once completed, the 7000-square-metre building will be the largest office building in Launceston.

St Luke's Health project director Martin Rees said it would be finished by December, with St Luke's staff and tenants moving in early in the new year.

"We're currently going up at the rate of one floor every 10 days which is phenomenal and that's because it's all timber which has been manufactured, drilled and engineered overseas," he said.

Mr Rees said it was important they took a focus on sustainability in construction and leave behind a carbon neutral footprint.

"It will take carbon out of the atmosphere to make it a zero contributor, which is pretty special," he said.

"There's only one other than Australia that's been certified as a hybrid timber building and it's in Brisbane, so this will be the second one that can claim it has a clean green nature.

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"It fits in with what we're doing at St Lukes. We want a healthy island and a healthy work environment as well so it makes a lot of sense to do something like this."

In the early stages of development, the company was faced with timber supply issues, and as a result, sourced supply from Victoria and Europe.

"The beams, columns and flooring has come from Victoria while the top two floors will be Tasmanian nitens, which previously would have been woodchips," Mr Rees said.

"We'd love to have used all Tasmanian timber, but the plan was not at a scale that it could produce what we needed for a 7000 square metre building.

"We had to compromise and use Tasmanian timber where we could and then use Victorian and international timber for the rest."

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He said machinery equipment in the mainland didn't have the capacity to build all the beams and columns due to a high demand for timber buildings.

"Overseas was the only choice, but it's all here in Launceston now."

He said the ground floor would be predominantly occupied with St Luke's staff, along with facilities available like yoga, entertainment, and childrens activities.

"There will also be a significant, really good cafe operator that Launceston people will be familiar with," Mr Rees said.

"People are loving it, some have said it's like watching the largest Meccano set go up in Launceston."

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