A 60-storey hotel for The Star
Star Entertainment plans to help change the Sydney skyline.
It’s all part of Star’s battle with rival James Packer’s plans for a six-star integrated hotel complex at Barangaroo South, just over the Pyrmont Bridge.
Using its home ground at the Pyrmont peninsula, The Star has launched three potential designs for the planned 60-storey, $500 million new hotel and apartments.
The Star is looking to build a 215 metre residential tower sitting alongside a spanking new Ritz Carlton hotel.
The winning design will be assessed by a five person design review panel including the managing director, The Star Sydney Greg Hawkins, NSW government architect Peter Poulet, Group GSA director Lisa-Maree Carrigan, UTS professor and Six Degrees Urban director Craig Allchin, and Marriott International's regional vice-president of hotel development Asia Pacific, James Doolan.
The panel will go over the plans put forward by three top award winning global architectural firms — Grimshaw Architects, BVN and FJMT.
They will choose the winning design at the end of the month and it will be put up for community input. After that, the final plans will be lodged with the Department of Planning and Environment in the first half of next year.
As part of their brief, the architects had to design a hotel with 150 residences and 220 premium rooms. The hotel would also have a ballroom, conference facilities and events spaces.
All this is part of a raft of new proposals for the Western Harbour precinct which will transform Sydney’s skyline and create a magnet for tourists from Asia.
Paul Foskey, the Ritz-Carlton's executive vice president for hotel development, said there was enormous potential to drive tourism from Asia, and China in particular.
"Ritz-Carlton resonates extremely well with Chinese travellers,’’ Mr Foskey told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We have 12 open hotels in the country and have been established in the key markets there for many years. There are another 12 Ritz-Carlton properties in the pipeline for China.”
by Leon Gettler, October 11th 2016
