Crown Resort still struggles to secure financing for a multi-billion hotel and residential tower that will be Australia’s tallest skyscraper
Australian casino operator Crown Resorts has signaled that it has remained committed to building Australia’s tallest skyscraper, even though the company is yet to lock up financing for the ambitious project.
Early in 2017, Crown received a provisional planning approval from the Victoria government to build the One Queensbridge hotel and apartment complex at its existing resort Crown Melbourne. The company needed that approval as its plan involves the construction of a building that will be three times greater in size than planning rules allow.
While the government’s decision to give the green light to the project was criticized by many as a “free kick” for Crown, Premier Daniel Andrews justified the approval saying the A$2-billion mega scheme was of “state significance.”
Nearly two years after the provisional planning permit, Crown is yet to secure funding for its project. Experts believe the slowdown in Melbourne’s apartment market is affecting the company’s ability to find financial supporters of the massive luxury hotel and apartment complex.
In previous comments on the matter, Ken Barton, Chief Financial Officer at Crown, has said that it is the residential portion that slows down the start of the project as finding a partner that wants to share the risk of developing the residential part has proved quite difficult.
A spokeswoman for the company has recently told CIM Magazine that the “start of the project is related to Crown finalising the project financing and various agreements as disclosed in [their] full-year results.”
The company is running up against its deadline to provide the necessary documentation for the project. The state government gave Crown up until February 2019 to complete that task. Should Crown fail to submit the necessary papers, it will have to seek extension of that deadline.
Australia’s Tallest Building
At 323 meters, One Queensbridge will be Australia’s tallest building. The glittering tower will feature a six-star 388-room hotel and 708 residential apartments. It will be located on Queensbridge Street in Melbourne, right opposite Crown’s casino in the city. Crown has formed a joint venture with Schiavello Group to build together the massive tower.
It has become known that the major casino operator has committed to contribute funds to a A$100-million project for the renovation and upgrade of the nearby Sandridge Bridge and Queensbridge Square.
As mentioned earlier, Crown and its development partner are planning to invest more than A$2 billion on building the hotel and residential tower. The project is believed to be among the biggest single-building schemes not only in Victoria but also in Australia as a whole, involving more than 300,000 square meters of floor area. It is still unclear when construction will commence, but according to initial projections it will take five to six years before the tower is completed and fully operational.
Crown is also planning to build a A$2-billion integrated resort in Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct. The property will feature a high roller casino, a luxury hotel, and residential apartments. The company has recently won a court battle against the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, whose own development project in Barangaroo threatened to obscure sweeping vistas of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from Crown’s tower.
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