Would connect to Crown Casino
If James Packer gets his way, he will be the proud owner of the tallest building in Australia.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Packer has proposed turning his $1.5 billion Melbourne Queensbridge Hotel Tower into a 90-story colossus, and then connect it to Melbourne’s Crown Casino via skybridge. That would edge out Australia’s current tallest building, the 78-story Q1 tower on the Gold Coast.
The Queensbridge Tower project will include a six-star hotel with 388 rooms and 708 apartments. In exchange for what Crown has said will be more than $3 billion in economic benefits to the state, the global company “has asked that its proposal be exempt from the usual planning rules,” reported AFR. In turn, it has pledged to renovate nearby Queensbridge Square, a major pedestrian plaza on the Yarra River.
But Tony Penna, president of a local community group, says the upgrade would be “more of a benefit to Crown than anyone else. They need to comply with the rules just like every other developer.”
