Crown Limited's Burswood Entertainment Complex Expansion
Never completely satisfied with his casino interests and portfolio down under and in the greater Asia Pacific region, Australian casino and lifestyle king, James Packer, is investing in his ever growing "war chest", even while sailing the high seas in his Artic P, with both Melbourne based Crown Casino and Perth's Burswood to get major boosts, adding to the giant chess board in the world renown Aussie casino wars.
Crown Casino is in advanced stages of planning a significant redevelopment of the Southbank promenade that will further increase the casino's floor space, including extra gaming areas. Punters, be it whales, dolphins, tuna or other will be pleased.
The strategic chess move is in fact the biggest redevelopment of the promenade since Crown relocated to the banks of the scenic Yarra River in 1997. At least 6 restaurants along Southbank will either be redeveloped or replaced and planter boxes will be replaced by new landscaping along the waterfront.
These moves will bring new life to the promenade, making the casino complex more relaxing, accessible and providing more room for gambling and dining (including drinking).
Fairfax Media advise that revamp plans show a new gambling area above the Lucky Chan restaurant. The Waterfront and Cafe Greco restaurants will be replaced by a giant 300-seat Atlantic seafood restaurant.
The casino has lodged a planning application with the state government called the 'Crown Promenade Masterplan' to rework the Southbank precinct between Spencer St and Queens Bridge St.
The massive project is forecast to take 2 to 3 years to complete, should it get the green light from the state government.
Crown could not (or would not - speculation only) say how much the refurbishment would cost or how much larger the famed casino would be in the aftermath.
In a very sweet and smart deal, er... agreement, it remunerates the state government $1 a year rent on its Southbank location under a deal which lasts until 2034. Yes, you read correctly folks - $1 per year rent. Pluck a duck... we're paying too much for our Bondi Beach digs.
Casinos spokesman, Gary O'Neill, advised some of the expansion of the gaming floor was linked to the casino's deal with the state government last year to provide an additional 150 gambling tables. Shuffle up and deal with red hot poker, war and more. Cool.
O'Neill said the Southbank refurbishment was "part of our strategy to grow the number of international tourists visiting Crown and Melbourne. Under the terms of the legislation setting up the casino in the first instance, Crown is charged with maintaining a world-class and internationally competitive facility,".
He said the new Atlantic restaurant was expected to open early next year but no date had been set.
Gaming Minister Tony Robinson told reporters last year after the new tables were approved "If people ultimately want to have the boiled-sweets experience of casinos, let them go to Sydney. If they want the rolled-gold, dark chocolate experience, they're going to keep coming to Melbourne, and we're going to ensure that."
Crown executives have now met Department of Planning officials to discuss the master plan and a duplicate copy has been whipped away pronto to the Melbourne City Council for kind consideration.
Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello, always up for a quote or wise crack, criticised the casino expansion plans. "Again it proves that 'ministers of the crown' has a particular meaning in Victoria. They (Crown) get whatever they want as the first citizen," he said. Tim, we understand your passion and being a man of God and all, but mate, its getting very long in the tooth. It's about tourism, jobs (and business).
The man of God (we believe too ok) said the expansion failed the "commonsense test" as the community was opposed to more gambling in Victoria? Who said... did you do your own survey?
Gamblers lost $1.2 billion at Crown in the 2008-09 financial year and the state government collected $136 million in taxes. How much gamblers won has proved to be a challenge to find out, even for the Media Man group.
Rebecca Harrison, spokeswoman for the Gaming Minister, went on record with "In December last year there was bipartisan approval so the casino could expand its gaming operations." Nuff said.
Burswood Entertainment Complex: Numbers...
Return On Investment - circa 2013.
450 new jobs in 3 years, some of which earmarked for GenerationOne (an Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest and James "Casino King" Packer and friends initiative).
Mr Barry Felstead, Burswood chief exec advised along with $130 million of capital expenditure already made, Burswood would be investing almost half a billion dollars over a 5-year period.
"The investment will bring significant and sustained benefits to Perth and Western Australia," Mr Felstead told the press.
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