Echo Entertainment rolling dice to make QLD the casino capital of Australia
Leisure giant Echo Entertainment is rolling the dice on a $1.5 billion bid to make Queensland the casino capital of the country.
Plans for a redevelopment worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the Gold Coast's Jupiters Hotel and Casino will be unveiled to shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Sydney on Friday while Echo is also proposing a project of a similar scale for the Brisbane CBD.
The combined spend would outstrip rival Crown's planned Barangaroo Casino in Sydney by almost $500 million and place Echo ahead of the game as the battle for Queensland casino supremacy heats up.
In plans to be lodged with the state's attorney-general within days, Jupiters will build a new six-star high-rise resort as well as proceed with a complete makeover of the existing hotel at their Broadbeach base.
The planned Jupiters casino on the Gold Coast.
There are also provisions for a promenade of restaurants, bars and retailers.
Echo Managing Director and CEO John Redmond said the Jupiters redevelopment would put the Broadbeach casino on the world map.
"This master plan is about restoring Jupiters Gold Coast as an international drawcard that will compete with the very best integrated resorts in the Asian region," he said.
The new-look Jupiters pool.
"These plans are to show people on the Gold Coast that we are committed long term, and there is a big opportunity for a world-class resort complex to lead the way in bringing jobs and economic growth back to the region."
"This is the tourism injection that the Gold Coast needs and deserves."
The 75-room luxury hotel has been billed as 'the finest of the fine' with some suites to feature private balcony infinity pools.
Jupiters Gold Coast frost bar.
With approval, Echo hopes to start work on the Jupiters expansion by mid-next year and be finished by 2016.
The Brisbane proposal would most likely involve the transformation of the Treasury in to a luxury boutique hotel with an integrated casino and resort development slated for a site in the CBD.
Echo hopes the two projects will become Australia's premier casinos.
However the company faces stiff competition from James Packer's Crown Group, which has also lodged an expression of interest for a new casino licence in Brisbane.
Mr Redmond would not speculate on whether Echo would proceed with the Brisbane expansion plan if Crown wins the right to build the city's second casino.
The State government wants up to three new casinos across Queensland, including a second for the Gold Coast.
A Jupiters suite.
Source: Perth Now, 7 November 2013
