Casino operator The Star Entertainment Group Ltd said in a Monday filing that the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane scheme (pictured) in Brisbane, in the state of Queensland in Australia, is now expected to open from April 2024. The new time frame represents a delay from prior guidance mentioning a launch in the second half of this year.
The Brisbane casino resort is being developed by privately-owned Destination Brisbane Consortium, a joint venture between The Star Entertainment and two Hong Kong-based partners: Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd, and Far East Consortium International Ltd.
The Star owns 50 percent of the venture, with the other half split equally between Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium.
In its Monday filing, The Star said the decision to change the expected opening date of the development followed a “review of the current construction progress”.
The statement quoted The Star’s goup chief executive and managing director, Robbie Cooke, as saying: “The revised opening date follows careful consideration of current progress by our builder. Queen’s Wharf has not been immune from the types of pressures that other major infrastructure projects across Australia have encountered.”
He added: “We are disappointed, but this transformational development for Brisbane has been eight years in the making already, and it will be well worth the wait.”
In July last year, the consortium announced that the project costs were “expected to be up circa 10 percent” on prior guidance of AUD2.6 billion (US$1.7 billion at current exchange rates). “Pre-opening and other operational readiness costs would be in addition to this estimate,” the promoter added at the time.
In December, authorities in Queensland announced that The Star’s licences in the state were suspended for a “period of 90 days”, and its properties there were to be placed under state-government supervision. The Australian casino operator was also fined AUD100 million.
The Queensland government in October had found The Star “unsuitable” to hold casino licences there. It followed completion of a review process that found the casino operator concealed from the authorities illegitimate wager payments it obtained from Chinese patrons, and lured problem gamblers from other Australian states.
The Star currently operates two Queensland casinos: The Treasury Brisbane, and The Star Gold Coast.
