Australian Billionaire Invests Extra $1.5b in His Melbourne Casino Tower

Parker Plans to build a 90 story hotel and casino tower in Melbourne

The ambitious casino mogul James Parker of Crown Resorts is not planning to stop investing in the gambling industry in Australia. To make his plans clear he invested an additional $1.5 billion or €963.5 million to build a 90 story hotel and casino tower in the Southbank area in Melbourne, reports HeralndSun. This will increase the spending of the casino operator to more than $10 billion over the upcoming decade.

The details of the Queensbridge project were publicly announced by Crown Resorts. They show a highly costly diamond shaped tower. The operator also announced that this project will create approximately 4,000 new jobs during the constriction period and after it is completed.

“A brand new hotel is the next new thing from Crown Melbourne,” said Parker. “I’m entirely committed to Melbourne and dedicated to keep Crown Melbourne at the forefront of the tourism in Australia,” he added. This shows Parker’s dedication and readiness to do anything in the rivalry battle with Echo Entertainment.

Huge Project but It Waits the Approval by the Government

The main focus of the project is to attract as many high roller players as possible from China as well as wealthy tourists from all over the world. The “beautiful and elegant” tower is planned to have 388 rooms and 700 luxury apartments and it would be a nice addition to Melbourne skyline according to Parker. In addition, the tower will include areas with lounges, dining areas, restaurants, a shopping centre and garden terraces among other facilities. Another interesting element of the tower is the 41-meter sky bridge that will spread over Queens Bridge Street linking the tower with Crown Resorts.

The tower is expected to become the tallest building in Melbourne covering over 200,000 square meters. It will be as tall as the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast as well as the Eureka Tower.

However, the tower still needs to be approved by the Australian government which will certainly restrict its height in order to make sure that it’s permitted under flight paths. The project is expected to be finished at the end of 2019 or at the beginning of 2020. In addition, it is expected to generate $140 million in taxes which will be a huge boost to the economy.

Melbourne Will Become Top Tourist Destination

Last year a record number of 1.7 million tourists from all over the world visited Australia. About 20 percent of them came from China. When the VIP business of rival Echo increased by 53 percent, Parker became very motivated to compete with his rival and decided to invest into building the highest casino tower in Melbourne.

Parker and Crown Resorts strongly believe that the new hotel, the huge casino and the expanded Convention and Exhibition Centre in the city will make the Southbank area a top destination for tourists, businessmen, gamblers and exhibitionists.