Crown Sydney & Melbourne Developments

[Ben]

We are really lagging behind if this gets built - which it will. SkyCity is probably the worst thing that has happened to our casino.

Anyway this will be an impressive development for Sydney.

James Packer's $1.4b Barangaroo casino given green light by

Barry O'Farrell by: JOHN LEHMANN and ANDREW CLENNELL

From: The Daily Telegraph July 05, 2013 12:00AM

Packer casino gets go ahead.

The NSW government has endorsed James Packer's plan to build a second casino in Sydney.

AN emotional James Packer has vowed to make his $1.4 billion Barangaroo high-rollers' resort "the best thing I've ever built" after winning his fierce battle over The Star to secure a second Sydney casino licence.
"I'm humbled by this opportunity in my home town," Mr Packer told The Daily Telegraph exclusively, moments after being told of the O'Farrell government's decision.

The billionaire was nervously pacing aboard his yacht Arctic P in Tahiti's Bora Bora when his business lieutenant Rowan Craigie telephoned with the news he had hoped to hear.

"I'm just very excited to be able to construct a building in Sydney which will be a drawcard for tourists the world over and become an architectural landmark in our region," the Crown executive chairman said.

The win ends a 19-year wait by the Packer family to enter the Sydney casino market after Mr Packer's father, Kerry, missed out on being awarded the city's first casino licence - to the Showboat-Leighton consortium in 1994.

Packer's celebrity pull helps casino win

Cabinet's unanimous decision was a crushing loss for The Star's owner, Echo Entertainment, with its shares diving almost 5 per cent just minutes before the announcement.

Premier Barry O'Farrell took a shot at The Star's performance, saying a key factor in the government's decision was a desire to inject competition because Sydney was battling to gain a decent slice of the rapidly expanding international VIP gaming market.

He said the government's assessment committee, led by former banker David Murray, "discovered that relative to Melbourne, we were underperforming in an area where there was $34 billion a year on offer".

The Star, which has been working hard to recover from a string of sex and drug scandals in recent years, will now face formidable competition from November 14, 2019, when its exclusive casino licence ends.

Mr Packer's Crown Ltd expects to pull in at least $1 billion a year in gaming revenue over its first decade in operation in Sydney, delivering to the government a total of $1.4 billion in tax revenue. Crown had offered to pay a $250 million up-front licence fee but the government elected to take a $100 million fee instead and impose higher gaming taxes.

Mr O'Farrell also expects Crown to lure tourism dollars, pump $442 million a year into the state economy by 2025 and employ 1250 people.

"I want this building to be instantly recognisable around the world and feature on postcards and memorabilia promoting Sydney - that's how you attract international tourists, create jobs and put Sydney on the map," Mr Packer said.

The widely expected decision means Crown will now proceed to the third and final stage of the government's unsolicited proposals process and will begin final negotiations. Under Crown's ambitious 70-month construction plan, a 250m-tall tower, draped in a white veil of sculptured glass, will rise above Sydney Harbour at Barangaroo by 2018.

The 70-floor resort will include 350 six-star hotel rooms, 80 luxury apartments, celebrity chef restaurants, at least 120 tables and 10 private VIP gaming saloons.

While Crown is banned from offering poker machines, it can install an unlimited number of multi-terminal gaming machines. Its overall gaming space will be restricted to 20,000sq m while smoking will be permitted throughout the resort.

Local punters will only be able to play if they fill out paperwork and are approved to join a Crown membership club.

A 24-hour cooling-off period will be enforced upon joining.

Casino Launch.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell annoucend that Crown has approval to move forward in the approval process to build a second casino in Sydney. Pictured in NSW Parliament House Sydney Picture: Greenhill Craig Source: The Daily Telegraph
..
Documents released yesterday show minimum bets will be imposed of $30 for baccarat, $20 for blackjack and $25 for roulette. These rates equate to a player betting between $1500 and $2100 an hour, the documents said.

As part of their visit to Sydney, Crown will also offer to helicopter its well-heeled customers to its luxurious Ellerston Day Retreat in the Hunter Valley and to the Perisher Ski Resort. Echo chairman John O'Neill issued a statement saying he was disappointed the government did not share the company's vision. In a bid to protect its exclusive licence, Echo had offered to spend $1.1 billion transforming its Pyrmont venue into a massive integrated resort, featuring two new luxury hotels.

Harbour City rolls the dice and wins

Mr Murray said he had been impressed with Echo's chief executive, John Redmond, and expected the company would further invest in Pyrmont.

Labor leader John Robertson did not commit the opposition yesterday to passing the required legislation through the NSW Upper House but has previously indicated he would move positively. Shooters MP Robert Brown said he believed his party would pass the laws.

[Phantom]

I gotta admit, Sydney would be a great location for something this huge. I'd love to see something similar in Adelaide (except with obviously smaller gambling limits), I'd hope it could find a way of being sustainable and create not only an Entertainment Complex for Adelaide, but if we're lucky it might also fire the necessary spark to create a new precinct around the area.

Just off topic?...

[rant]Why would you want to make the minimum bets $20 for Blackjack, $25 for Roulette and $30 for Baccarat? Why not have them all set at $25? Also, $25 for a minimum bet on a straight up number on Roulette is a huge amount to spend! I've thrown around a dozen $2.50 chips on the wheel before, but that's $30! Throwing those same dozen chips would cost $300 on one spin! Three losing spins and it's nearly a grand! Man, the cost of shit in Sydney amazes me. I once walked past a U-Park there charging $77 for 3-4 hours... Where do I get to sign on for a job that allows me to happily blow $19.25 an hour on parking fees? I'd gladly sign up![/rant]

The Star's Monopoly License of the Casino industry ends on November 14, 2019? I'd make the assumption that if this were to take place and be built, they would target an open date of say... November 14, 2019 or something symbolic like January 1, 2020?

I take it they would be allowed to build an unlicensed Casino immediately, provided it doesn't open prior to getting a license, yeah?

[Paulns]

We are really lagging behind if this gets built - which it will. SkyCity is probably the worst thing that has happened to our

[/quote]

I couldn't agree more there! Skycity's hopeless.. I wish would Crown would come to Adelaide and do what they've done in Perth to our Adelaide Casino here! Completely rebrand & redevelop it...

[Ben]

Now Melbourne's turn and yet skycity can't even put together a 6/7 level building. What a joke.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/crown ... kc7hg.html

Crown to lodge controversial plans for 90-storey hotel higher than Eureka Tower



Date October 19, 2015 - 12:43PM 136 reading now

Clay Lucas

City Editor, The Age

Crown casino has re-launched plans for a controversial 90-storey hotel tower on the banks of the Yarra River that would be 20 metres taller than the Eureka Tower.

The $1-billion-plus plan - by the same British architects Crown is using for its Barangaroo tower in Sydney - includes a 41-metre-long "sky bridge" over busy Queens Bridge Street that could face opposition from Melbourne City Council.

The previous plan for the sky bridge boasted that it would link its two six-star hotels so that guests could easily cross between them without having to get down to street level.

Melbourne City councillor Stephen Mayne said sky bridges over streets were not permitted under the planning scheme, "although a number of exemptions have been granted over the years".

"Crown has been lobbying the state government heavily and this will be an interesting test for [Planning Minister] Dick Wynne and [Premier] Daniel Andrews given the general message that the 'anything goes' era of Matthew Guy is over," he said.

Crown employs former Labor Party national secretary Karl Bitar as one of its lobbyists.

Crown casino's plan for its new 90-story hotel and apartment tower.
Crown casino's plan for its new 90-story hotel and apartment tower.

Mr Wynne described the Crown plan as "an ambitous proposal" and pointed to it as proof recent height and density rules he had put in place would not stop development.

"It is a vote of confidence in our city - there are many naysayers who seek to ... say that due to some of the [CBD planning rules] I have put in place ... there is not going to be any further investment in the city," he told ABC radio in Melbourne.

"That project [and others] speak to the appetite for investment in Melbourne."

He described Crown as "a very signficant employer" and said the project would provide large-scale employment in construction.

Plans for the project were submitted weeks before last year's state election, but were withdrawn soon after the election of the Andrews government. The new plans have added an extra six levels, and have been redesigned by British architects Wilkinson Eyre.

The building would be one of Melbourne's biggest, covering more than 200,000 square metres, and be the fourth hotel at the Crown gambling and entertainment complex.

Crown and its partner in the project, Schiavello, conducted a global design competition and five architecture firms put in final designs: Wilkinson Eyre, Bates Smart, Hassell, Foster + Partners and Jean Nouvel.

The tower will include a 388-room six–star hotel and almost 700 apartments. Crown is also offering to upgrade the public Queensbridge Square next to the casino.

Crown executive director James Packer said the proposed tower was "a beautiful and elegant building that is destined to be an important addition to the Melbourne skyline".

The minister has previously flagged the need for more hotel rooms in central Melbourne, and this year has already approved about 1400 rooms. The Crown proposal would see almost 400 new hotel rooms built.

Mr Packer, the chairman of Crown Resorts, was identified by racing identity and Crown founder Lloyd Williams as a backer of Mr Andrews during last year's election campaign. Mr Williams told Mr Andrews that the casino mogul was going to "kick every goal he can" for Labor. Mr Andrews said later that the comments were a matter for Mr Packer.

The massive proposed tower would, like the recently begun Australia 108 tower nearby cast significant shadows and require clearance from aviation authorities because of regulations covering flight paths.

Residents in other Southbank towers have already flagged their intention to fight the tower, saying even its shorter predecessor breaks guidelines approved for the area by the previous government.

[rev]

I gotta admit, Sydney would be a great location for something this huge. I'd love to see something similar in Adelaide (except with obviously smaller gambling limits), I'd hope it could find a way of being sustainable and create not only an Entertainment Complex for Adelaide, but if we're lucky it might also fire the necessary spark to create a new precinct around the area.

Just off topic?...

[rant]Why would you want to make the minimum bets $20 for Blackjack, $25 for Roulette and $30 for Baccarat? Why not have them all set at $25? Also, $25 for a minimum bet on a straight up number on Roulette is a huge amount to spend! I've thrown around a dozen $2.50 chips on the wheel before, but that's $30! Throwing those same dozen chips would cost $300 on one spin! Three losing spins and it's nearly a grand! Man, the cost of shit in Sydney amazes me. I once walked past a U-Park there charging $77 for 3-4 hours... Where do I get to sign on for a job that allows me to happily blow $19.25 an hour on parking fees? I'd gladly sign up![/rant]

The Star's Monopoly License of the Casino industry ends on November 14, 2019? I'd make the assumption that if this were to take place and be built, they would target an open date of say... November 14, 2019 or something symbolic like January 1, 2020?

I take it they would be allowed to build an unlicensed Casino immediately, provided it doesn't open prior to getting a license, yeah?

That's because the casino development in Sydney isn't aimed at low end occasional gamblers, but people with money to burn.
From what I heard it's more so intended as a destination for high rollers with deep pockets.


As for SkyCity, they are a joke, but hindsight is another thing.

The state government should change the legislation to allow for more then one casino in Adelaide as a means to pressuring SkyCity to get their act together.

If SkyCity isn't going to deliver the goods, fine, so be it.
Change the legislation.
They want to redevelop the Port right? Open it up for an entertainment complex as part of a wider strategy to attract more people to the Port not only as residents, but as an entertainment/night spot for people to go to. Build it up as a second CBD, and have things like an office tower component, entertainment/casino component, residential towers component as the key precincts around the Port between the Glanville station, St Vincent Street, Semaphore rd and the PREXY.
There shouldn't just be a tram that runs up to the Port, there should be a tram loop around the Port it self, that connects with the beachside suburbs and the City.
And that comes back to a wider issue, of attracting more people here in the first place in general. How are we going to do that, with limited development and limited opportunities?
This state needs to start building, and sooner, rather then later and dragging things out.

Sorry guys, but "positive thinking" alone isn't going to save this state and pull it out of the doldrums.
Action is needed. Things need to be fast tracked.
There needs to be an urgency about things now.
We can't expect the morons in the Liberal part to show bipartisan unity on these issues with the Labor government, they are too childish, immature and just plain shit at their jobs to do what's in the interests of South Australia for a change.

Our politicians on all sides of politics are unfortunately boring, dull, unimaginative, useless,incompetent twats.