Crown and Echo have last throw of the dice in $1b battle for...

Crown and Echo have last throw of the dice in $1b battle for Queen's Wharf

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Echo Entertainment and James Packer's Crown Resorts have less than a fortnight to submit their final bids for the $1 billion plus Queen's Wharf casino and entertainment complex in Brisbane.

The landmark project, pushed by the Newman government and then stalled with the election of the new Labor government in January, is back on track with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk assuring Parliament this week that a preferred bidder would be chosen by the end of July.

The two short-listed casino operators and their joint venture partners, who are finalising and making adjustments to their initial proposals for the nine-hectare site, have been given a final date of May 22, though the government could still stretch the deadline to the end of May.

Queen's Wharf will be a key measure for the business community of the new Labor government's commitment to infrastructure and investment. Already Labor has abandoned the previous Newman government's $37 billion asset sales plan and infrastructure program. It has also kept an election promise to reject a multi-billiondollar casino and cruise ship terminal proposal in the Gold Coast Broadwater.

ECHO V CROWN, GREENLAND

In a replay of Sydney's casino licence war several years ago, Echo, together with its Hong Kong-based joint venture partners Far East Consortium and Chow Tai Fook, is up against Crown and Chinese state-owned developer Greenland Holdings.

Both Echo and Crown declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Deputy Premier, Planning and Infrastructure Minister Jackie Trad.

The stakes to build the new Brisbane casino are even higher now than when the bidding started.


Echo has already lost its monopoly in Sydney from 2019. Crown dominates Melbourne and Perth. For Echo, losing to its rival in Brisbane would be a disaster – even though the group would still retain its dated casino on the edge of the new development and the Jupiters casino on the Gold Coast, which is undergoing a $345 million refurbishment.

Other options in Queensland are also narrowing. In a fresh twist this week Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung lobbed a $160 million bid for the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, and reportedly intends to redevelop the hotel into a casino. But Mr Fung is already trying to build a more than $8 billion resort and casino north of Cairns that has also been stalled.

For Crown and Echo in Brisbane, the plans are all but final. What has to be finalised in the next two weeks is the offer price for the licence fee and the site.