Star bright in Australia
Tabcorp’s Star City Casino, situated on the Sydney harbor, has revealed plans to add a five-star hotel with 300 rooms. But perhaps the most interesting element in the redo is the intent to build an underground retail mall that will connect the hotel to the waterfront.
The past year has seen Australia’s gaming industry fighting a lot of adverse political activity and the accompanying negative press. The addition of retail space that will make better use of the waterside location may be a good public relations move.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the plans for the redevelopment project are on display at the casino, and quotes the plans as saying, “It is hoped that the expanded retail areas will attract traditional shopping outlets that the local community has been asking for, such as a bakery, a fruit market and fashion stores.”
Star City spokesman Peter Grimshaw told the Herald that the mall was not designed to lure new players to the casino.
Said Grimshaw, “On the contrary, the local community has indicated to us that they want village and general-shopping facilities, so we are going to try and provide the sort of shopping that they want.”
Besides the 13-story hotel and the retail mall, the project calls for additional underground parking, more convention space, entertainment facilities, improvements to the building’s facades and more gaming area. Cost of the project is estimated at well over A$300 million, about US$287 million.
