Plans for new Crown Casino tower at Southbank

A 90-storey tower could transform Southbank in a massive project driven by Crown Casino.

It’s understood the $1.5 billion hotel and apartment tower would be built by Crown with nearly 400 six-star hotel rooms and nearly 700 luxury units.

Crown’s Executive Vice President of Strategy and Development Todd Nisbet told Neil Mitchell the new building would become iconic.

‘We’ve created a really great addition to the Melbourne skyline,’ Mr Nisbet said on Monday.

‘Additional places of accommodation and tourism, where people can walk to work, is exactly what Melbourne needs.’

Mr Nisbet said Melbourne needs new buildings like these to avoid falling behind.

‘You look at what Sydney’s doing, what’s happening up in Queensland, we need to keep pace.’

But Neil is concerned the area risks becoming over-developed. 

‘Are we getting too many skyscrapers?’ he asked.

Crown held an international design competition with British architects submitting the winning design.

A feature of the design is a glass walkway across Queensbridge Street linking the new hotel to the Crown complex.

The Herald Sun reports the construction of the buildings would create up to 4000 jobs.

James Packer told the newspaper he wants to keep ‘investing and upgrading’ to keep the tourists rolling.

The tower would be taller than Eureka Tower, but still needs planning approval and clearance from aviation authorities.

LISTEN: Todd Nisbet explains the proposed tower to Neil Mitchell