Sydney planners have rejected Star Entertainment Group’s Star City’s proposal for a $530 million hotel tower along the city’s waterfront. The hotel was intended to compete with the Crown Sydney casino and tower now under construction across the harbor, with a 2021 completion date.
The developer says it doesn’t plan to drop the proposal, which includes a 220-room Ritz-Carlton hotel and 204 high-end residential apartments, which it wants to build next to its Pyrmont casino. The proposal includes food and beverage options and a neighborhood center to be done in partnership with Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Holdings and Far East Consortium.
The Star City proposal was opposed by anti-development groups who called the proposed casino “an eyesore,” and “completely inappropriate” by a city councilor. The New South Wales (NSW) Planning Department ruled that it was inconsistent with the existing and future character of the city.
The department wrote: “While numerous taller buildings are situated within Darling Harbour and Barangaroo, these form part of cohesive clusters of high-density buildings, associated with strategically identified precincts. The same context does not apply to the Star site.”
It added, “The plan would introduce a new tower form that is inconsistent with its immediate context and would result in unacceptable visual impacts due to its scale, isolation and visual dominance of the existing Pyrmont character and fails to promote good design and amenity of the built environment.”
The last word on the proposal rests with the independent NSW Planning Panel, which usually, however, takes the planning department’s recommendations.
A spokesman for Star said in a statement: “We believe it will have a significant benefit for tourism, the city and for the state of NSW.”
Last week, Star Managing Director and CEO Matt Bekier told Inside Asian Gaming that things are going to get rocky for casinos that appeal to VIP players due to the trade war between China and the U.S.
He noted that VIP turnover fell about 30 percent during the first half of the year and the trend is continuing. “The pattern behind that is strong arrivals but much less risk taking than in the past, so they don’t turn over as much as they have,” Bekier said. “These are very large players who are entrepreneurs and if they’re not certain how competitive their products are going to be from a tax point of view then they are not going to take as many risks with their spare cash,” he told Inside Asian Gaming.
That would continue as long as the rivalry between the U.S. and China remains on a high burn, he predicted.
Nevertheless, he called prospects in Sydney and Brisbane for Star and its rival Crown Resorts “enticing.” He added, “I think that Crown opening here in Sydney will make destination Sydney even more attractive. I think the whole east coast—Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane—will become very, very attractive for VIPs because you will have multiple high-end destinations in very close proximity and independent lines of credit.”
