More competition for Packer project
A Ritz-Carlton hotel may be in the works for the Star casino complex in Sydney, according to reports. The Star was formerly known as Echo Entertainment.
The elite hotel chain is talking to the New South Wales government about a proposed $500 million, 360-room hotel in Darling Harbour; the tower would open in 2019, possibly a year ahead of the $2 billion Crown Barangaroo casino resort project planned by James Packer, reported the Australian.
“The impact this hotel will have on jobs and opportunities for Sydney cannot be underestimated,” said Stuart Ayres, NSW’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events. “This surge of new hotel developments is another sign of Sydney’s status as a true global city.”
Business Insider Australia reported that the 200-meter (656-foot) hotel tower is part of a $1.1 billion makeover designed to draw Chinese high rollers. As a Star spokesperson told Fairfax Media, “The affluent Chinese middle class is on the rise and looking further afield. There’s an opportunity to capture some of that. In Sydney, occupancy rates at the high-end are at spillover capacity. There’s certainly demand that requires additional supply.”
That same dynamic is driving Ritz-Carlton’s interest, said Paul Foskey, Ritz-Carlton’s executive vice-president of hotel development for the Asia-Pacific region. “Over the past couple of years the market has been shifting in that you have seen an influx of capital from other areas of Asia looking to invest in the market and a dramatic increase in visitation from Asia. These two things have sparked the necessity for luxury hotels in the market.”
The hotel operator, a unit of U.S.-listed Marriott International, also plans to establish a foothold in Perth and Melbourne through projects in development by the Hong Kong-backed Far East Consortium. Those projects are expected to be complete in 2019 and 2020.Ritz-Carlton has also agreed to open a hotel in the $3 billion Queens Wharf development in Brisbane, a joint venture of the Star, Far East Consortium and Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook.
The Star and Far East Consortium approached Ritz-Carlton after their successful bid for the Queen’s Wharf development rights. Both the casino and the Ritz-Carlton hotel will be located in Brisbane’s Treasury building; they are expected to open in 2022.
