New leadership plans to make Crown Melbourne ‘unrecognisable’ by 2030
A mega-makeover is planned for the city’s iconic entertainment complex, with a total renovation on cards for gaming floors and hotels.
Victoria
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Crown Melbourne will be unrecognisable by 2030 from what it is today, with the casino’s new leadership to completely renovate its gaming floors and hotels and to link the area better to the Yarra riverfront.
Crown Resorts new chief Ciaran Carruthers said the revamp would bring back the buzz to the landmark Southbank site.
Mr Carruthurs revealed plans to transform Crown and restore its former glory at a Future Victoria lunch hosted by the Herald Sun and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said he hoped Crown Melbourne, purchased as part of a $9b takeover by global equity group Blackstone, would add to the broader rejuvenation of the state.
“Mike (Crown Melbourne chief executive Michael Volkert) is going to lead a complete renovation with the property and integration with the property more with the riverfront with the precincts adjacent to us,” Mr Carruthers said.
“A complete renovation of our gaming floor, we’re going to rebuild and renovate the entirety of the three hotel towers, reprogramming food and beverage and entertainment.
“The Crown of today, the Crown of 2030, they will be unrecognisable other than it’ll be at that location.
“It will truly be something that will be a gold standard in terms of safe responsible entertainment gaming,
Mr Carruthers, a former executive of Wynn Macau, said he had been drawn to the job because of the passion the community had for the Casino as a central piece of Melbourne.
“It’s palpable,” he said.
“There’s a real desire here to see us succeed, a real desire to see it return to its former glory
“I remember when I was here previously, probably 15 years ago, I used to walk into that property and feel like dancing.
“There was an energy, there was a buzz in the place.
“That’s been lost a little bit. That’s absolutely coming back.”
Speaking at the event, Treasurer Tim Pallas also shared his party’s vision for how Melbourne might look in 2030.
He spruiked the government’s current building work, saying that by 2030 the Metro Tunnel would be part of the fabric of the city.
But the MP said he also envisioned a city with a thriving private sector.
“Our city (in 2030) continues to be the place to do business – but differently,” Mr Pallas said.
“While technology enables us to work from anywhere – and sometimes we do – our world-leading precincts reflect the fact that proximity matters, that collaboration matters.
“Precincts like the Cremorne Tech Hub, Parkville, Clayton, Fisherman’s Bend and the CBD’s financial services cluster are hotbeds for innovation and advancement.
“Businesses that were just start-ups back in 2022 have now scaled up, adding to the rich tapestry of commerce across our state.
“As Australia’s tech capital, our artificial intelligence and quantum computing efforts are improving our industries and lives, and creating jobs.”
Mr Pallas said he also believed that Victoria’s regions would be flourishing.
“They (will) have never been better connected,” he said.
“Through affordable and frequent transport links and high-speed mobile and broadband coverage, the tyranny of distance is consigned to the history books.”
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said he was more confident of the state’s future than he ever had been before.
“But I’m confident more than anything else in the people of Victoria,” he said.
“Not money, not government, not buildings, but in our people. It’s our greatest strength.
“People make a state, not buildings, not the weather, if it was the weather, Auckland would be one of the best and biggest cities in the world.
“But Melbourne is and should be, and we’ve got to think positively about our city and having strategies to get people back to this city.”
Mr Guy said Melbourne wouldn’t become the biggest city in Australia “by luck or by chance”
“We have to do it through strength and confidence,” he said.
“I’m not interested in Melbourne becoming just the largest city in Australia to suit the ABS.
“It’s got to suit all of us, our lifestyle, the lifestyle we have today, our children and those people who want to come to this wonderful multicultural city.
“I’m more interested in seeing Victoria become a state of cities, not a city state – to diversify our economic base to ensure that we’ve got job growth outside of the city, as much as we do in other parts of our state and in the CBD of Melbourne.”
Mr Guy said strength would also be built through encouraging multiculturalism.
“Victoria in 2030, I see it as a place where business comes to grow, not to be taxed out of existence, but to know it’s the most competitive place in Australia,” he said.
“Not to be criticised for making a profit but to be encouraged to reinvest back into our economy, to get younger people who do a gap year in England to come here for 12 months.
“The same with those kids from China, from America, from India, to come here. And not just Melbourne but the whole state.”
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