$3 million investment
Plans for Star Entertainment Group’s casino complex at Queen’s Wharf Brisbane have been approved by the government of Queensland, reports GGRAsia.
The development plan was submitted by Destination Brisbane Consortium, a joint venture half-owned by Star. Its partners in the venture are Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd. and Far East Consortium (Australia) Pty Ltd., a unit of Far East Consortium International Ltd.
The consortium “will review the development approval terms and progress the next steps for the project in accordance with the development agreements with the State of Queensland,” Star said in a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.
The Queensland government granted a gaming license for Queen’s Wharf Brisbane in October 2016. The 99-year term contains a 25-year exclusivity clause that bans other casinos within 60 kilometers (37.3 miles) of Brisbane’s central business district.
Architecture AU reports that the development will occupy 12 hectares (30 acres) of state-owned land and could eventually add 15.3 hectares along the Brisbane River. In total, the 27.3-hectare (67.4-acre) complex could be the largest private development in Queensland, equivalent to 20 percent of the city center.
The integrated resort will include a casino, five hotels, 50 bars and restaurants, 2,000 apartments and a retail district. The site includes eight heritage-listed buildings which will be adapted for re-use. Critics including former Queensland government architect Michael Keniger think the complex is out of place in such an historic setting, which is also the seat of government; Queensland Parliament House is not far away.
“It’s unfortunate that such a large-scale development driven by the needs of the gaming floor of the casino overrides what was a coherent government precinct and overrides its setting,” Keniger told Architecture AU in 2015.
Several towers of up to 74 stories and a pedestrian bridge across the Brisbane River are also part of the plan, reported Casino News Daily.
Construction is expected to begin this year, with the resort set for completion and launch in 2022.
Also in Queensland, the Cairns Post reports that European gaming and lottery giant the Sazka Group has entered a conditional share sales agreement to increase its holding in Casinos Austria AG, a co-owner of the Reef Casino Trust. In a statement released to the Australian Stock Exchange, an RCT spokesman said the Czech-based company wants to “obtain control” of CASAG.
“If the upstream acquisition is completed, and Sazka Group obtains control of CASAG, Sazka Group may acquire a relevant interest in the 67.1 percent of the RCT units,” the spokesman said.
The sale is subject to government approval, but Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath has already said that Sazka Group is “suitable to be associated or connected with the ownership, administration or management of the Reef Hotel Casino.”
