Crown Sydney’s Penthouse Could Fetch $100 Million

Sun, Aug 3, 2014

Plans for Crown Sydney’s 69-story hotel tower include a penthouse at the top that could be the first property in Australia to sell for $100 million. Crown may not sell it, however, reserving it instead for the ultra-high rollers the resort will target.

A three-story penthouse atop Crown Resorts’ planned Crown Sydney megaresort could be the first Australian property to break the A0 million price barrier.

If it does, Crown will recoup in a single shot the $100 million license fee it paid to New South Wales for permission to operate a members-only VIP casino at the Darling Harbour resort.

The company hasn’t yet submitted a development application for the proposed 69-story hotel tower so it’s not known if the penthouse will be privately sold or used as a luxury villa to entertain big-spending gamblers.

Justin Brown, chairman of real estate giant CBRE, predicts the apartment might sell for up to nine figures compared to similar property around the world.

“The penthouse at One Hyde Park (in London’s Knightsbridge) sold for $255 million recently,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald. “Penthouse apartments are selling in New York and Hong Kong for $100 million.”

Crown has promised the state government a guaranteed minimum of $1 billion in gambling taxes and fees over the first 15 years of the casino’s operation.