James Packer’s $2b Barangaroo development vision to help make Sydney a truly global city
JAMES Packer unveiled his vision for Sydney, giving a $2 billion promise to repay the city’s faith with a spectacular and iconic building.
NSW
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BILLIONAIRE James Packer unveiled his vision for Sydney last night, giving a $2 billion promise to repay the city’s faith with a spectacular and iconic building that will carry the city into the future.
“The government and the parliament have put their faith in us and we will deliver them something truly spectacular,” Mr Packer said. “There has never been a hotel that cost $5 million a room in the history of the world.”
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He was speaking before unveiling the updated and taller plans for the 275m Barangaroo tower at The Daily Telegraph’s exclusive MySydney dinner at the Art Gallery of NSW last night.
The event, co-hosted with The Committee For Sydney, brought together the Harbour City’s movers and shakers to hear Mr Packer and Westfield’s Steven Lowy in conversation about their vision for the city’s future.
Asked to nominate what was needed to fix the issues holding back Sydney, Mr Lowy said: “I don’t think it’s about silver bullets, I think it’s about leadership. Without leadership we will seriously struggle.”
However, he went on to single out a lack of spending on infrastructure as a problem.
“We all feel ripped off, over a long period of time, about the lack of infrastructure,” Mr Lowy said.
Mr Packer, whose family name has been synonymous with the power that has shaped the city, spoke of his love of Sydney’s beaches, calling Bondi his “spiritual home”.
“Not too many cities have the natural beauty Sydney has, the Harbour is world’s best and the beaches are spectacular and so close to the city,” he said.
But he warned that Sydney should not be complacent.
“We need to take notice of what is happening in other parts of the world — sometimes I think as a city we have been complacent, we can’t take our natural beauty for granted,” Mr Packer said.
“Tourists will definitely visit the city to see the Harbour, the Opera House, the beaches — but to keep them coming back we need more unique man-made attractions and we need to better take advantage of our natural assets.”
And part of his vision to get people to keep returning was to create his 350-room, 60-apartment Crown tower that would become a recognised symbol of Sydney.
“The building has to stand out from the background and, yes, the proposed height of 275m is critical to the building being a global landmark,” Mr Packer said.
The planning application for the tower is expected to be lodged in the next month and, if given the go ahead, will be the second-tallest building in the city behind Sydney Tower.
Work has also been done to incorporate the Harbour shoreline and help create a “breathtaking” world-class public walkway from Woolloomooloo through Barangaroo and on to Darling Harbour.
“From a tourism point of view, I would love us to use the Harbour more. Sydney should be a Monte Carlo type of destination for Chinese and Asian high-wealth tourists,” he said.
Mr Packer’s vision also included world-class sporting events to rival the tennis and F1 motor racing in Melbourne.
“Golf would be a standout. But it means putting money on the table and getting Tiger Woods and the very best out here every year,” he said. “But we should also be targeting international business conferences and cultural events. Why can’t Sydney host the biggest and best Chinese New Year celebration outside of China?
“That’s how you put Sydney on the map and capture the global tourism market.”
Mr Lowy, the former president of the Art Gallery of NSW, believes Sydney needs to dramatically increase the size of the gallery to allow it to compete on a global stage.
“It is a really essential piece of cultural infrastructure for the city,” he said.
His vision for an extended art gallery, called Sydney Modern, extending over the Eastern Distributor, would provide architects with a fantastic challenge to create a new icon and open a new gateway into the city, he said.
Daily Telegraph editor Paul Whittaker said his newspaper was “an unashamed cheerleader for this great city and all its dreams and hopes.”
The Daily Telegraph was part of a community championing better transport, a second airport and jobs in the city’s west, he said.
“In Sydney, as in the rest of the country, the main impediment to this is not the will of the people but the mediocrity of our political leaders.”
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LEADERS from all fields including politics, banking and the media gathered at the Art Gallery of NSW last night to brainstorm a vision for the future of Sydney.
Billionaire James Packer unveiled his vision in conversation with Westfield co-chief executive officer Steven Lowy with moderator, former ABC presenter Sally Loane.
Mr Packer was supported at the event by his mother Ros and sister Gretel. “I am excited by the idea of this — we need a good vision,” Ros Packer said.
The Committee for Sydney chair Lucy Turnbull said: “Both the Barangaroo project and
the Art Gallery are exciting projects that have the ability to transform Sydney.”
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed: “Sydney is already the greatest city in the world and what
we have to do now is build on our strengths.”
Seven chief operating officer Ryan Stokes envisaged Sydney becoming “ more global and a part of the Asian century”.
Network Ten CEO Hamish McLennan stressed the need for Sydney to make the most of its proximity to Asia.
The man expected to pay for the vision, NSW Treasurer Mike Baird, said: “We are steadfastly going about finding the money for the infrastructure.’’
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CUTTING layers of government bureaucracy and giving Sydney one powerful overarching body such as the Greater London Authority would create a much better and more co-ordinated city.
However, Westfield co-chief executive officer Steven Lowy would not extend his vision to speculate on who could be Sydney’s answer to London mayor Boris Johnson.
Speaking exclusively before last night’s MySydney forum with Crown casino boss James Packer, Mr Lowy said the Harbour City was hamstrung by competing levels of state and local government.
“From our experience of building two shopping centres in London, we have seen there is a very clear vision of what London needs and there is a very clear vision of how to achieve it,” he said.
“By contrast when we wanted to build a shopping centre at Bondi Junction we tussled for 11 years between two local councils to get it approved.
“We can see it’s obvious what a great city we have, but it’s also obvious the lack of infrastructure and vision that we have had for a long time,” he said.
Mr Lowy also believes Sydney needs to extract more use and value out of its existing assets.
“We could get a lot more out of (Westfield Sydney) if more things were in place around it such as transport and more flexible opening hours. We need more co-operation.”
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