Crown bids for fourth hotel
James Packer's Crown Limited has plans for a fourth hotel at its Perth casino and entertainment complex at Burswood.
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The hotel - which could be a serviced apartment-style development costing $125 million-$150 million - would be built after the proposed $570 million six-star Crown Towers hotel.
Planning approval for Crown Towers is being challenged in the WA Supreme Court by residents of Mirvac's nearby Burswood Peninsula apartments.
Crown's plan for a fourth hotel was in part sparked by the State Government's decision to build the new 60,000-seat football stadium on a northern part of the former Burswood golf course.
Premier Colin Barnett was personally advised of the plan by Crown Perth chief executive Barry Felstead in 2012.
In a January 13, 2012 letter marked "commercial in confidence", Mr Felstead told the Premier that Crown was "committed to developing the (Burswood) complex into a world class recognised integrated resort, to compete against other Australian properties".
"In line with our commitment to develop the complex, we have recently undertaken an overarching review of the future of the facilities, taking into account the Government's decision to develop the new football stadium and the broader master plan of the peninsula more generally," he wrote.
"In this respect we have a new proposal to further develop the complex and adjacent parklands through the construction of a new six star hotel featuring a small retail and dining precinct to complement the hotel and a serviced apartment complex or additional hotel facility."
The letter went on to describe a third, 37-storey hotel of 522 rooms and sought 5.8ha of additional golf course land at a peppercorn rent and approval for 500 extra gaming machines and 130 gaming tables.
Crown eventually bought the land for $60 million and announced a 25-storey tower of 500 rooms.
The correspondence was tendered as evidence in the three-day Supreme Court case that wrapped up this month.
A spokeswoman for Crown did not respond to several requests for comment.
