Supplier News
Australia – Packer to add six star tower to Melbourne’s Crown
By Phil - 19 October 2015
Australian operator Crown Melbourne is adding a luxury six-star hotel tower to its Melbourne casino precinct.
British architects, Wilkinson Eyre won the contest to design the proposed new Queensbridge Hotel Tower and precinct to be located in Melbourne’s Southbank area.
Situated in one of Melbourne’s premier living and leisure destinations and one of Australia’s prime hosting areas for international meetings and events, the proposed Queensbridge Hotel Tower will comprise a 388room, luxury six–star hotel and approximately 680 apartments. The hotel will feature a truly unique special event space and a publicly accessible restaurant, lounge and garden terrace at the top of the tower.
The design also provides an active streetscape and public forecourt area with retail outlets and restaurants, which will become a new amenity for locals and visitors, connecting the ground floor of the building and hotel to the outdoors area.
Crown Resorts Executive Director, James Packer, said: “Wilkinson Eyre have designed a beautiful and elegant building that is destined to be an important addition to the Melbourne skyline. Melbourne just keeps getting better as a city, but we can’t take this success for granted.”
“A new hotel is the next evolution of Crown Melbourne. I am committed to this city and committed to keeping Crown Melbourne at the forefront of Australian tourism. A new Crown hotel means more rooms for interstate and international tourists and that means more jobs for Victorians,” Mr Packer said.
Schiavello Group Chairman Tony Schiavello said: “It was a very competitive design process, with some of the world’s and region’s best known architects involved. The calibre of all five firms in the process shows how special the city of Melbourne is and its’ prominence on the world stage. This site deserves a truly special building and our vision is to create a landmark building that has international appeal, timeless form and design.”
“We want to create a place that people are proud to call home,” Mr Schiavello said.
Crown Resorts CEO, Rowen Craigie added: ‘‘The new luxury hotel addition to Crown Melbourne will have significant economic and employment benefits for Victoria with over 3,000 new direct and indirect jobs during construction and over 1,000 new direct and indirect jobs on an on-going basis after completion. The development will also assist Melbourne in attracting more high net worth tourists, reinforcing the city’s appeal as a destination for important international conferences, sporting and cultural events.”
Paul Baker, Director Wilkinson Eyre said: “We approached this project with the ambition to create an elegant and timeless building that will become a new, world-class landmark against the Melbourne skyline. All across the world we are seeing cities embrace iconic developments as they vie for their share of international tourists.”
“We are confident that the design of the proposed Hotel and the ’one of a kind’ offerings like the ’Sky Bar’ at the top of the tower will be ‘must see’ destinations in Melbourne. We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to design what we believe will be an outstanding addition to the world’s most liveable city,’’ Mr Baker said.
