Crown prevailed in Sydney
Echo Entertainment and Crown Resorts, which just battled over a casino license in Sydney, are now fighting each other for a license in the capital of Queensland. The government of Australia’s second largest state last month released the final “integrated resort development” designs from the two companies, which are vying for the right to develop a resort at Queen’s Wharf in the center of Brisbane. Both released their design plans late last month.
Crown Resorts plans a complex with three hotels, a rooftop garden, new restaurants, a public space, and a bridge to South Bank, where the company will build a new movie theater and water park along with the casino.
Echo’s Destination Brisbane group plans an arc-shaped building with a sky deck, restaurants and bars, five hotels including a Ritz-Carlton, a river arena, an underground mall and “12 football fields of public event space,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The
Echo’s existing Treasury Casino would be repurposed as a boutique department store, the Herald reported. A bridge would connect Queen’s Wharf to the other side of the river, where Destination Brisbane has promised to construct a new Lyric Centre.
The companies are not yet permitted to disclose additional details about the proposed resorts including size, number of gaming machines, casino size, etc.
The Herald reports that the coveted gaming license is “the carrot the government has offered in order to have the resort and hotels built.”
“The point was very strongly made to us by international tourist operators that this sort of integrated resort development is the emerging product in the tourism market,” said Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney. “Tourism is one of four pillars of the Queensland economy. We have a great many natural wonders which are great tourism attractions for Queensland, but if we are going to be competitive, if we are going to remain competitive in that international tourism market, then we have to offer a product that fills this segment of the market as well.”
The massive Queens Wharf site covers 10 percent of the city, according to the Queensland Courier Mail.
Echo and Crown just battled for a casino license in Sydney. The Crown group, led by billionaire James Packer, won that prize.
The winning bid for the Queen’s Wharf license is unlikely to be announced before the second quarter as the government looks at the bidders, both of which have Chinese partners, reported GGRAsia. Crown Resorts has teamed up with a subsidiary of Mainland China’s state-owned property developer Greenland Holding Group Co. Ltd. Echo Entertainment has partnered with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises of Hong Kong and the Far East consortium. Chow Tai Fook, run by Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu Tung, is also interested in developing casinos in South Korea and Vietnam.
United Voice, which represents some 120,000 Australian workers, has come out in support of the Crown bid, claiming Echo Entertainment is associated with Stanley Ho. Ho was recently banned from the New South Wales casino scene during that state’s recent probity process; Gary Bullock, union secretary, told the Brisbane Times the chairman of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises has a stake in Ho’s Macau casino business.
“The decision that the government makes will be everlasting in Queensland,” Bullock said. “It will be a travesty if the wrong decision is made and undesirables are allowed to operate casinos in Queensland.”
