Sweet! World-leading chocolate experience plan approved

Move over Willy Wonka, a "world-leading" experience drawing inspiration from the inside and outside of chocolate bars has passed a major planning milestone.

The $150 million project, to feature a chocolate lounge, is slated to sit next to the century-old Cadbury factory in Hobart's northern suburbs.

The plan was approved by a local council on Monday night - it initially made headlines in 2024 for a now-dropped promise to build a giant chocolate fountain.

Designers have drawn inspiration from unwrapping chocolate and say the outside of the building will adopt a refined metallic cladding.

Inside will sit a "reinvented" chocolate factory with a collection of immersive, multi-sensory worlds, each encapsulated within its own floating pod.

A three-hour ticketed journey is envisaged in what developers Simon Currant and Associates say will deliver "the world's most extraordinary chocolate experience".

"I have absolutely no doubt this will become a tremendous tourism destination in its own right," Glenorchy City Council mayor Sue Hickey said.

The project has been compared to MONA - a million subversive art gallery that opened just around the corner in 2011 and resulted in a surge in tourism to Tasmania.

Developer Simon Currant said there will be some MONA-like elements.

"The forward thinking and way-out way of doing things, you'll see some of that because we used MONA's creative company," he told ABC radio.

The development will be separate from the Cadbury factory, which began production in 1922 as the company's first expansion outside the UK.

Tours at the Cadbury factory stopped in 2008, while the visitor centre was shut in 2015.

"It was a must-see for locals and tourists. I'm sure chocolate-lovers the world over have been eagerly awaiting a new visitor experience," Ms Hickey said.

The state government has committed $12 million to the project, with the developers in the process of getting the remainder of the capital from the private sector and loans.

It is expected to open in late 2028 and is also expected to produce its own line of Tasmanian chocolate.