Blackstone Planning Extensive Investments to Upgrade Crown Melbourne Resorts

Following the recent $9 billion acquisition of the Crown Resorts, the New York-based real-estate giant Blackstone is planning a major investment in the the casino and hotel operations in the Melbourne site to make it one of the best resorts in the world, as The Australian reports.

Property Upgrade -”Long Journey”:

As the resort has been subjected to regulatory interventions and corporate turmoil for years, the global boss of Blackstone  Jon Gray reportedly said that the process to upgrade the property – once owned by the billionaire James Packer – and get it back on the leading track will be ‘‘a long journey,” despite the fact that Gray controls almost $1.5 trillion in property funds, private equity and credit facilities.

According to The Australian, Jon Grey said in an interview: “It’s a new day at Crown. That’s what we want to convey to people – We’re committed to operating this business at the highest standard possible. And ultimately, we want tourists to come back in a big way”.

Tourism as ”Great Growth Engine”:

He reportedly indicated tourism as the Australia’s “great growth engines” and expressed his intention to involve in the tourism development in the country. As The Australian reports, Grey intends to use significant funds out of the Blackstone’s $US195bn ($292bn) pool to funnel investments around the world.

“Our view is quite bullish on Australia,” he reportedly said. “There are obviously challenges in the near term, given growth will slow with the higher rates. But this is a market where you have very strong population growth. You’ve got great rule of law, transparency and a lot of knowledge workers.”

Property Liabilities:

The Australian reports that some of these challenges may be linked to the recent developments around the Crown Resorts. These reportedly include a$450 million fine recently agreed to be paid to Austrac, the financial crime regulator, for the failure to comply with anti-money laundering procedures. As this case is pending for settlement before the Federal Court, Jon Grey will reportedly soon get down to have the original Melbourne Casino and Entertainment Complex upgraded after almost 30 years of operation.

Continued Upgrade Projects:

The upgrade will reportedly represent a continuation of the revamp projects recently completed for the Crown Perth and Crown Sydney casino and hotel facilities. The Sydney project being reportedly worth $2.2 billion may now be used as a reference to estimate the extent of upgrade works for the ageing $9 billion Mebourne Southbank.

According to The Australian, Grey said: “Melbourne is a physical turnaround story. And our objective would be to invest significant capital there and enhance the asset, which we think will be great for the community and great for tourism there as well.”

The Blackstone boss reportedly continued: “We want to be a best in class entertainment company and hotel business. We understand that there was a lot that wasn’t done right. And we’ve got to come in here and operate at the highest standard, the highest standard from a compliance standpoint, but then make them as attractive as possible to customers.”

Pattern to Follow:

As The Australian reports, Gray pointed to some Blackstone’s achievements in similar projects, such as The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which it acquired in 2014 for $US1.7 billion to make a record handle at the moment. After hundreds of millions in investments have been pumped into the upgraded resort and its operations, the company recently sold the business for $US5.6billion.

Gray reportedly plans to follow the same pattern with Crown to recover international tourism. He reportedly said: “If you went back to that (Cosmopolitan) story, it was a company that had been built, foreclosed on and had a number of staff issues and needed capital to complete it. And we went in, we brought in a lot of capital and hardware, but then software in terms of restaurants and entertainment, a great management team”.

Gray reportedly added: “We think these are great tourism assets. And frankly, I think tourism is one of Australia’s great growth engines. Sydney, Melbourne, Perth – these are world-class cities that people want to visit. So isn’t it a good idea to own world-class assets in those cities?”