After months of negotiations, Echo Entertainment has received the green light to completely upgrade parts of Brisbane’s CBD.
The announcement comes seven months after both the Echo Entertainment Group and James Packer’s Crown Resorts put forth individual proposals to change the city’s waterfront and make the city a more appealing tourism destination.
As part of the win, Echo will redevelop state-owned land located between the Brisbane River and George Street and between Alice and Queen Streets.
The project, which will cost billions of dollars and take up to seven years to complete, is expected to generate around 8,000 jobs and bring in an additional 1.4 million tourists to Brisbane each year.
Image: Destination Brisbane
Announcing Echo’s win last night, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described the company’s vision as ‘iconic’ and a game changer for the city.
State Development Minister Anthony Lynham mirrored her views, saying the power of transformation will be ‘huge’.
“It will do what South Bank did for Brisbane 30 years ago.”
Anthony Lynham, State Development Minister
So what exactly can we expect Brisbane to look like by 2022?
First off, the city will receive more culinary experiences. According to Echo, 50 restaurants and bars will open up in the area – a number of them owned or designed by celebrity chefs.
Echo is also planning to install extravagant light displays as well as massive public screens to give the city more colour and life in the evenings.
Image: Destination Brisbane
Cycling infrastructure will receive an upgrade as will heritage buildings.
Families will enjoy the new water parks and the increased green spaces.
Image: Destination Brisbane
There’ll also be a new South Bank theatre plus a new riverside event space capable of handling around 26,000 people.
Echo plans to move the existing casino from the Treasury building and to new towers. This will make way for the Treasury to become a major shopping haven.
Construction on the ‘new Brisbane’ is expected to start in 2017.
