Get on with it – GC cruise terminal needed now
The Gold Coast business community is urging the Queensland government to declare Priority Development Area status in an effort to get the $5 billion cruise ship terminal development on the Spit and Wavebreak Island underway and ready for the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
After a decade of procrastination and dithering, business associations say PDA status could cut at least six months off the time frame after planning bosses admitted that the copious red tape approvals required for the integrated resort development as proposed would take at least two years.
ASF China Property Consortium has been named by the Newman government as the preferred developer of the Broadwater Marine Project that would include a 50-storey accommodation tower, low-rise residential buildings, casino, convention centre, mega cruise ship terminal, a super yacht facility, public open space, stadiums and several bridges to Southport.
But don’t hold your breath. Minister for state development, infrastructure and planning, Jeff Seeney, said the development had to overcome significant challenges and he would not guarantee a new casino licence for the project, something that is seen as key to funding the project.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Gold Coast boss David Ransom said, “If the government does not give it PDA status, then some other planning instrument is needed to streamline the approval process. The city has been waiting long enough already. The last thing the project needs is a long approval process that means the proponent has to spend a lot of time and money progressing it.”
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Peter Yared said the state government had already taken too long selecting the successful consortium and the following stages of project approval needed to be quicker. “We need a decision either way,” he said.
ASF China Property Consortium is a group of companies including ASF Group, China Communications Construction Company, Guangzhou Dredging Co Ltd and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. The group’s CEO David Fang is based in Sydney.
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