Crown Resorts has been cleared to build a 90-story hotel and apartment block adjacent to the thriving Crown Melbourne.
One Queensbridge is set to be developed by James Packer’s companies in collaboration with the Schiavello Group. It’s estimated that the project will take $821 million to realise.
The project was approved by Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne who described One Queensbridge as a “project of state significance.” As such, it has been exempted from central city planning controls.
Crown development budgeted at $80m
Crown is also committed to investing $80 million into improving the public infrastructure in the area.
Upon completion, One Queensbridge will be the tallest building in the city, standing a staggering 323m high. In addition to 288 hotel rooms, it will feature 700 residential apartments. The building will house no gaming facilities.
James Packer – like father, like son
James Packer, who only rejoined the Crown Board last month, is naturally delighted with Minister Wynne’s decision. Likewise, he was thrilled when the New South Wales parliament gave the go-ahead to the construction of a 275-metre casino, hotel and apartment tower in Bangaraoo, Sydney.
Packer is the only son of Kerry Packer, the Australian media mogul whose love of gambling was such that he regularly dropped huge sums of money at gaming tables the world over. Packer Sr also rejuvenated cricket as a spectator sport in the late 1970s via his World Series Cricket initiative.
