James Packer’s six-star Crown Melbourne hotel on hold
THE grand vision for Crown Resort’s new six-star hotel in Southbank remains on the drawing board, more than a year after government planning approval. Here’s why.
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CROWN Resorts plans for a new six-star hotel in Melbourne remain on hold, according to the company’s annual report released this morning.
The report shows strong growth at the company’s Melbourne casino but the Perth casino, in the shadows of Optus stadium, has struggled.
The One Queensbridge development opposite the Crown Towers hotel on Southbank was approved in February last year.
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It includes plans for a 388-room hotel and 708 residential apartments and a walking bridge linking it to the casino across the street.
But the joint development with Schiavello Group has no start date for construction.
“The proposed project remains subject to financing,” the report says.
Crown’s Sydney hotel at Barangaroo remains on track for completion in the first half of 2021.
“We believe that Crown Sydney will become an international tourism icon and will help Sydney attract high net travellers from all parts of the world,” it says.
Crown made a $326.7 million profit for the year to June 30.
“This result reflects a solid performance from our Melbourne operation, with VIP program play turnover up 73.9 per cent partially offset by subdued trading in Perth,” the report says.
Crown’s former chairman James Packer remains a major shareholder with 316,928,302 shares at June 30.
It comes after reports this week that Mr Packer paid $82 million for a new home in Los Angeles, which was once owned by Danny DeVito.
Crown’s executive chairman John Alexander was paid a base salary of $3.5 million, while chief financial officer Kenneth Barton earned $1.8 million.
Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was paid $218,620 for his non-executive director role.
Crown completed the sale of its Alon Las Vegas land for $300 million last year, as well as off loading online wagering company CrownBet for $150 million.
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