Campaign to Support Destination Brisbane

The Queens Wharf Integrated Casino development is a once in a generational opportunity for Brisbane. A game changing project which will allow our city to step into the next level.

What is the next level? I’m talking about a level that many international cities across the world enjoy today. Things like 24 hour retail, six star hotels, iconic sky high observation decks, live entertainment and events every single night of the week – including Mondays, a CBD fresh food market (finally). If you’re thinking “how is a six star hotel going to benefit me?”, it will benefit the city’s reputation which means more tourists, more immigration (growth), more options for entertainment and culture, more international stature and influence.

Lets be frank, Brisbane is a truly fantastic city. The people, the weather and the natural surrounds makes Brisbane an extremely enviable place to live and one that we should be very proud of. But these things alone don’t make a city an international destination in itself. So imagine if we had not just the weather and natural beauty but also the vibrancy, added entertainment and cultural options, and most importantly an iconic architectural public facility planted in the heart of the city. Brisbane would be unstoppable.

Brisbanedevelopment.com believes Echo’s Destination Brisbane Consortium can achieve all of this, and so we have created a petition that is aimed at convincing the Queensland Government to select Destination Brisbane as the winning contender to develop this game changing project. We will stop at nothing to convince the government of this, and here are the reasons why:

• For years Brisbane has been grappling with a lack of ‘iconic building’. Destination Brisbane has been successful in creating an identifiable modern horseshoe-shape ark platform that straddles across four buildings. Apart from the Sydney Opera House, there is no other building in Australia that achieves such a unique recognisable design feature. This is the first failing of Crown’s proposal which does not feature such a signature architectural point of interest.
• At ground level, Destination Brisbane’s design fits much better into the Brisbane urban fabric, creating a whole precinct through the planned ‘Queens Walk’ that connects Brisbane Square through to QUT. The design maximises the utilisation of Brisbane’s great outdoor climate. Starting with the open green – which will host performances, live music and moonlight cinemas. It’s subtropical design of vertical gardens across all towers makes the proposal unique to Brisbane which is striving to be at the forefront of ‘subtropical design’.
• Brisbane has lost a lot of it’s heritage since the sixties to even recently. Destination Brisbane’s proposal plans to inject new life into key buildings like the Treasury Building which would become a new retail centre for everyone (not just 18+ casino goers). Another building is the Treasury Hotel which is planned to be a new Ritz Carlton with public courtyard in the middle. Smaller buildings too like The Mansions, Harris Terrace, The Printery, The Commissariat will be repurposed to house such exciting uses like a tea salon, perfumery, chocolatier – things that you could imagine finding in a quaint european style heritage building. This is a precinct wide solution which spans all buildings, not just a few – this is something Crown cannot achieve.

• The Arc Skydeck – destined to become envied by our southern counterparts for giving us such an amazing piece of infrastructure. On the deck, you can go for a late night drink, watch fireworks, walk over a scary glass floor observation section, take in the nightly water and light show or just simply give your visiting family or friends bearings of this great city. The possibilities for this deck in the future could be endless. This is such a big gift to Brisbane – at no expense to taxpayers. This is not on opportunity that comes often and this should not be squandered.
• Queens Wharf plaza is a large, open and highly flexible public events and gathering space is the heart of the waterline of Queens Wharf. This unbeatable design includes everything from riverfront amphitheatres, to markets, public gym facilities and educational mangrove walks.

• Currently Echo Entertainment’s existing casino license is amortised on a straight line basis over the remaining life of the lease of the Treasury Building to which the licence is linked, that expires in 2070.
• If the Queensland Government selected Echo as the preferred contender, Brisbane would see two casinos running in parallel at the same time.
• It is not hard to imagine the social implications of two casinos for one city as well as a dramatic increase in slot machines within the Brisbane CBD.
• It is not socially responsible for a government to allow two casinos to run concurrently for a city with a population of 2 million and three casinos for the SEQ region of 3 million.
• Along with the projected 10,000 new jobs as part of Destination Brisbane’s proposal. Echo Entertainment has plans to relocate it’s head office to Brisbane – providing the city with many new corporate executive rolls and further investment. Crown Resorts has no plans to move and the head office would remain in Melbourne with Brisbane being a ‘branch’ of the Crown Resorts empire.

• A high commanding majority of Brisbane supports Destination Brisbane Consortium’s bid over Crown. Two relevant genuine online opinion polls indicate the following.
  • Brisbanedevelopment.com poll:
    • In favour of Destination Brisbane – 78%, 672 Votes
    • In favour of Crown Consortium – 22%, 188 Votes.
  • SkyscraperCity forum poll:
    • In favour of Destination Brisbane – 88.89%, 96 Votes
    • In favour of Crown Consortium – 11.11%, 12 Votes.

This is a clear mandate from the public that people prefer Destination Brisbane over Crown Resorts.

The people of Brisbane are sick to death of grand visionary projects being watered down to ‘average’ or failing outright. We need a bold proposal, we need Destination Brisbane. Please do what is best for Brisbane.