Botany Bay cruise terminal wins billionaire backing
Multi-billionaire developer Harry Triguboff has backed controversial plans before the NSW government to build a cruise ship terminal at Botany Bay, saying the plan is good for the nation’s tourism sector.
After years of debate concerning the location of a third cruise ship terminal in Sydney, the state government recently announced it was considering two sites for a potential terminal on the northern end of Botany Bay.
US cruise company Carnival had previously plumped for Defence’s Garden Island, a plan since rejected by the federal government. But Carnival’s rival, Royal Caribbean, has long advocated Botany Bay as the better option.
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Cruise companies have complained that the lack of berths in Sydney Harbour is contributing to a drop-off in cruise growth, which peaked in 2016 at 21% growth on the previous year. By last year, growth had slipped to 0.9% from the previous year, but 1.35 million Australians still took a cruise that year.
“Botany Bay must be developed for cruise ships,” Triguboff says, adding that it would be much easier for cruise ships to turn around in Botany Bay than Sydney Harbour.
“It has to be there at Botany Bay. They have tried so many times to do it (turn around) in the harbour. They can’t get there.”
The NSW government recently announced it was considering two sites for a potential terminal on the northern end of Botany Bay.
Triguboff recently bought land in nearby Little Bay and says he would be keen to capture the pre- and post-cruise ship market with the development of a serviced apartment complex if a cruise ship terminal proceeded. He has approval for 400-500 apartments on the site and says public transport will follow once the apartments are constructed.
“If we get cruise passengers we will build serviced apartments,” says Triguboff, who has 20 serviced apartment buildings operating on the eastern seaboard and a further six serviced apartment projects in the pipeline adding nearly 2100 more bedrooms.
Although Triguboff’s Meriton has bought sites in Melbourne and Canberra for serviced apartments, the property developer says he is not preparing to expand into Western Australia, South Australia or Tasmania.
In Surfers Paradise, he is building the 74-level Ocean building on The Esplanade. It will be Meriton’s third Meriton Suites Hotel on the Gold Coast. “Tourism is growing very rapidly,” he says. “Who would think that in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe we would get $250 a night?”
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
