0 million investment
Star Entertainment Group of Australia has announced plans to develop a six-star luxury hotel tower at its Star Sydney casino in the suburb of Pyrmont. It’s the second largest casino in the country after Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
The hotel tower will be operated by the Ritz-Carlton and developed with Star’s partners in the $3 billion Queen’s Wharf Brisbane development, Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium, reported the Age. The tower will include more than 220 premium hotel rooms and 150 residences.
Three architectural firms are bidding on the project, with the winner to be named shortly. The prevailing architect will be asked to take community views into consideration before a final design is approved next year. The value of the initial investment is approximately $500 million. Matt Bekier, managing director and CEO of Star Entertainment, said it’s worth it.
“Tourism, especially from Asia, is a huge, long term growth driver for Australia,” he said. “Sydney needs more quality hotels, exciting entertainment and hospitality infrastructure to win its share of that growth. Our development concept will take the Star’s room inventory to more than 1,000, bring the Ritz-Carlton brand back to Sydney and add a further 20 food and beverage venues. It will allow us to really enhance and increase our contribution to Sydney’s tourism offering.”
Bekier said Star is “pleased” that Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium will participate in the project. “The expertise and experience they bring in the development sector is invaluable, along with their ability to help drive the appeal of our properties in key tourism source markets such as China,” he said.
The hotel is expected to break ground immediately on receipt of necessary approvals and be under construction for an estimated 30 to 36 months.
