I attended an afternoon tea where the Aquis Project Manager was presenting to give an update on the development - it was pretty much 2 hrs of fluff with nothing new discussed, just going over what Aquis will be and re-affirming that they are still taking the necessary steps to go ahead with the project.
Here are some of my notes from event:
Total size is 340ha. There will be a 33ha artificial lake and a 40ha 'island' that will be the main resort/casino area. The whole development will be flood tolerant and has been driven by 'impact avoidance' where they want to impact the local environment as little as possible and in some parts leave it in a better state than what it is now.
During the 2 stage construction there will be 7,250 jobs and 20,000 when fully operational. Total of 7,500 hotel rooms when completed and the total development will include retail shopping, aquarium, theatre, outdoor sport and rec facility, 18 hole golf course, convention and exhibition centre.
The EIS has been approved (in record time apparently) and now they're negotiating the casino agreement at a state level (no federal involvement). After that it's capital raising and then design. They said best case scenario is approval and start post wet season 2016.
There's been 230 submissions in response to the proposal - 40% supported the development and 40% supported with buts. All these submissions can be viewed on the co-ordinator general website.
They project the population to be 300,000 by 2036 but the treasury expects lower. They will still develop to the projected level as it will hit that population level eventually whether it's by 2036 or later.
They're waiting for the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation act) to be signed off at a ministerial level.
Capital for the project has not been raised yet, they're waiting for more certainty.
They're building the Aquis brand within Aus for more brand recognition. There's a new arm of the Aquis brand which is Aquis Entertainment and they're sponsoring a footy team (forgot to write which code). They've also appointed a new CEO of Aquis Entertainment.
There's the expectation of a lot of 'me too' followers once (if) this is built so will act as the anchor point for a lot of new developments.