Shortlist announced for Star Casino’s $500M tower

Three of Australia’s most successful architecture firms will compete in a competition design process for a new $500 million tower at Star Casino Sydney.

BVN, Francis Jones Morehan Thorp and Grimshaw have been shortlisted from an unsaid number of applicants to submit designs for a new premium hotel to be situated at the northern end of The Star's Pyrmont casino complex.

It will accommodate 220 premium hotel rooms, 150 apartments and 20 new food and beverage venues. The hotel will be run by the Ritz Carlton who is returning to Sydney after a short-lived hiatus.

Aerial view shows development area

The developers will be hoping the project rushes through planning before rival James Packer's Crown Resorts begins operating across the waterfront at the Barangaroo precinct in 2020.

As part of the competition design process a preferred scheme will be decided by a Design Review Panel which include NSW government Architect Peter Poulet, Group GSA director Lisa-Maree Carrigan and Craig Allchin, adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Technology Sydney and director of Six Degrees Urban, among others.