COMPLETE. Star City, completed in 1997, was one of the largest building projects ever carried out in Australia. Leighton Properties led the successful bid team and in December 1994 was announced by the NSW Casino Control Authority as the successful applicant for New South Wales’ first casino licence.

While the permanent casino was underway, Leighton Properties converted a nearby former shipping terminal into a temporary casino; itself a A$70.0 million project. The architects for both projects were a joint venture of the Cox Group in Australia and the US based Hillier Group, which led to a unique blending of American casino theme concepts with the needs of the Australian environment. The temporary casino was used as a ‘test bed’ for the permanent complex.

The permanent casino involved the construction of the gaming facility, hotel, serviced apartments and the associated entertainment complex - two theatres, including the 2,000 seat Lyric Theatre. Leighton also developed and built a rail corridor and station within the casino site to accommodate the new light rail system from Central Railway to Pyrmont.

Scale of project

• six tower cranes were required on site – the largest number ever used on a single construction site in NSW
• the completed project has a built area of 220,000 sqm (over 3.35 hectares)
• approximately 170,000 sqm2 of rock was excavated from the site
• a total of 110,000 cubic metres of concrete was poured along with 3,000 T of structural steel
• the main gaming floor is the size of two football fields

The development of this world class entertainment complex was

• completed in just 36 months
• employed a peak workforce of 2,000 people
• incurred a maximum rate of expenditure of A$28 million a month (1997)

Star City was awarded the prestigious Property Council of Australia Rider Hunt Award, which recognises buildings that have provided a balance between outstanding return on investment, owner and user satisfaction and a broad range of other building, commercial and services criteria.