Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin Waterfront Corporation General Manager Sam Burke says there’s been a lot of interest from developers keen to build a luxury hotel attached to the Convention Centre

Transcript

Darwin Waterfront Corporation General Manager Sam Burke says there’s been a lot of interest from developers keen to build a luxury hotel attached to the Convention Centre · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We do know that a new hotel, which will be
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: integrated within the Darwin Convention Center, is going to be
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  Speaker 1: built at the Darwen Waterfront. That is what has been
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  Speaker 1: announced this morning, with expressions of interest being called for
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  Speaker 1: in the coming weeks from the private sector to develop
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  Speaker 1: the Darwin Convention Center Hotel to join the thriving tourism,
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  Speaker 1: residential and hospitality offerings that we've already got there at
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  Speaker 1: the Darwin Waterfront. And joining me in the studio to
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more is Sam Burke, who
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  Speaker 1: is the general manager of the Darwen Waterfront Corporation.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Sam get Akadie. Great to be here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good to have you in the studio. Now, tell
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  Speaker 1: me a little bit more about this hotel because I
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  Speaker 1: always thought it was going to sort of be around
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  Speaker 1: the other side of the waterfront, but it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be right there next to the Convention Center.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So this is a really important day for the waterfront
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  Speaker 3: and the Waterfront Redevelopment master plan. The Darwin Convention Center
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  Speaker 3: Hotel is the first cab off the rank as part
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  Speaker 3: of this redevelopment, and what it reflects is the fact
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  Speaker 3: that we've done a full market analysis, and the result
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  Speaker 3: of that is developers are keen to build a hotel
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  Speaker 3: attached to the convention center. Now there is a lack
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  Speaker 3: of stock in the market for that higher end convention
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  Speaker 3: business hotel market. And if you think you're a visitor
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  Speaker 3: here for a conference, you'll be able to stay in
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  Speaker 3: a world class hotel attached to the convention center with
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  Speaker 3: the new Laroche Cultural Center across the road and ultimately
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  Speaker 3: surrounded by an incredible redeveloped water from just.
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  Speaker 1: Paint a picture for us, because I know in my mind,
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, where is this going to fit?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so where it is.
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  Speaker 3: If you picture the convention center at the back, so
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  Speaker 3: the harbour side of the convention center, there is a
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  Speaker 3: car park at the rear of the convention center. That
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  Speaker 3: car park is about twenty eight hundred square meters and
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  Speaker 3: it beautifully fits a tower of about eight stories with
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  Speaker 3: two hundred to two hundred and fifty hotel rooms of
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  Speaker 3: international brand, and you'll be able to walk straight into
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  Speaker 3: the convention center through air condition.
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  Speaker 1: Hallways and so about eight stories, two hundred to two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty rooms, and at this point in time,
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  Speaker 1: it's now out to market for expressions of interest.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. So it's a two step process.
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  Speaker 3: The non Churcher government and Waterfront Corporation have engaged experts
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  Speaker 3: in hotel projects called CBRE. What they have done and
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  Speaker 3: will do is get operators together and they'll also get
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  Speaker 3: developers together, because obviously there's two parts. You need someone
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  Speaker 3: to fund and build a hotel, and then you need
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  Speaker 3: those main brands to run and operate the hotel. What
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  Speaker 3: I can say, and what the government has been very
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  Speaker 3: pleased with, is how much interest there is in this
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  Speaker 3: and like I said, the commercial feasibility came back. This
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  Speaker 3: site works today, it works even better with our Waterfront
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  Speaker 3: master Plan redevelopment and then ultimately the.
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  Speaker 2: Old luxury hotel site.
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  Speaker 3: So the old Western Landbridge site will one day be
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  Speaker 3: developed with probably a very very high end luxury hotel project.
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  Speaker 3: But this is the one that makes sense today. And
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  Speaker 3: it's all about consolidating the waterfront and getting everything in
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  Speaker 3: the right sequence.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, and it is all part of well the
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  Speaker 1: master plan. Talk me through then that this updated master plan,
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  Speaker 1: because I understand that that's now sort of come through
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  Speaker 1: as well. We will try to shoe the flyover on
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  Speaker 1: the Mix one oh four nine Facebook page so people
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  Speaker 1: can see it, but.
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  Speaker 2: Talk us through that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So we were thrilled and overwhelmed with the public's
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  Speaker 3: response to our first iteration of the waterfront master plan.
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  Speaker 3: We have another incredible fly through showing the new design. Essentially,
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  Speaker 3: the new design incorporates the visuals of.
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  Speaker 2: The conventions and a hotel.
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  Speaker 3: But importantly for those that have been following this very closely,
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  Speaker 3: we've moved the surf park so it still has a
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  Speaker 3: full scale, competition ready surf park, but it is now
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  Speaker 3: at a different end of the precinct where we can
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  Speaker 3: fit a different product in. And we've expanded our incredible
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  Speaker 3: concept of a tropical snorkeling and diving lagoon with three
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  Speaker 3: D printed and natural corals and basically a world first is.
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  Speaker 2: What we're going to deliver through this project.
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  Speaker 1: Is this going to get off the ground? Sam? Like,
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  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are thinking, oh, looks great,
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  Speaker 1: sounds like it would be a fabulous idea, But where's
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  Speaker 1: shown me the money basically.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why it's so important we understand that.
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  Speaker 3: And being around Dawhen for a while, you do get
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  Speaker 3: fatigue with some of these concepts. But the important part
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  Speaker 3: is we are putting this package together sequentially. So the
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  Speaker 3: first cab off the rank is the one with the
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  Speaker 3: greatest commercial feasibility, which is the Convention Center hotel.
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  Speaker 2: We will get that done.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to be an incredible addition that then underpins
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  Speaker 3: the investment in the next stages.
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  Speaker 2: So the next.
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  Speaker 3: Logical one is the surf park, which will be viewed
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  Speaker 3: as a sort of public private partnership. And then the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the precinct really is public domain, so that's
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  Speaker 3: not ticketed, it's open to the public, and you want
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  Speaker 3: to build that around your cornerstone private investment. So we've
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  Speaker 3: got to get the private an investment in and then
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  Speaker 3: surround that with the public camer.
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  Speaker 1: Now, with that hotel, how soon do you anticipate that
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  Speaker 1: it would actually be operational, that people are going to
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  Speaker 1: be able to stay there.
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  Speaker 3: We know that the demand is there now, and in fact,
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  Speaker 3: the Darwin hotel market has rebounded better than any other
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  Speaker 3: place in the country. We're sort of forty seven percent
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  Speaker 3: up on pre COVID numbers, so pre COVID, not during COVID.
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  Speaker 2: Pre COVID. I think the.
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  Speaker 3: Next best jurisdiction is one percent up so the hotel
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  Speaker 3: market in Darwin is booming. There's no better time than
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  Speaker 3: now to get it done. So CBRE are testing the market.
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  Speaker 3: There'll be an EOI in a couple of weeks and
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  Speaker 3: we would hope that with the response that we expect,
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  Speaker 3: we'll have construction sort of dry season within twelve months.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, so that soon?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: What about staffing it, I know that's not going to
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  Speaker 1: be your issue, but staffing, you know, like staffing levels
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  Speaker 1: at the moment are pretty hard to sort of fill.
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  Speaker 1: You reckon, that's going to be a tough juggle.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, Darwin's all about getting population growth and
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  Speaker 3: that's what under per everything we're trying to do at
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  Speaker 3: the Waterfront is present a lifestyle that is attractive. If
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  Speaker 3: you're going to work in a hotel somewhere in Australia,
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  Speaker 3: you're going to look at the destinations, what do they offer.
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  Speaker 3: We want Darwin to be the standout, not just in
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  Speaker 3: the dry season, and we think the whole vision for
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  Speaker 3: the waterfront, along with other projects that government are pursuing
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  Speaker 3: around the place in the oil and gas and manufacturing
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  Speaker 3: and renewable sectors, will bring people here and that's how
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  Speaker 3: you get staff hotel staff are going to be either
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  Speaker 3: career hospitality people. This will be a brand new, feature
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  Speaker 3: flagship hotel. Why wouldn't you want to work there? Or
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  Speaker 3: it will be more casual staff that hopefully you're here
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  Speaker 3: because other family members are pursuing jobs and lifestyle.
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  Speaker 1: So now, what about to anybody who's listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: who might be concerned about development about another you know
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  Speaker 1: about there being sort of a fairly I know it's
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  Speaker 1: not a real high rise, but it's still fairly high
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  Speaker 1: hotel there at the convention center or at the waterfront,
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  Speaker 1: what would you say to them?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've done a lot of work and that
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  Speaker 3: will all be released publicly that shows you lines and
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  Speaker 3: all the rest of it. So it was important when
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  Speaker 3: we looked at the site you might think it's relatively small.
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  Speaker 3: We did what's called a massing study and concepts so
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  Speaker 3: you can see how we can fit the type of
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  Speaker 3: hotel we want to achieve, what it looks like, how
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  Speaker 3: view lines might be impacted. We've even done shade studies
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  Speaker 3: to show how as the sun moves, does it shade
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  Speaker 3: things inappropriately.
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  Speaker 2: It fits really really well for what we're achieving.
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  Speaker 3: And it has no material impact on the surrounding area.
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  Speaker 3: But we'll obviously get feedback on that, so developers will
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  Speaker 3: look at our design, they'll tweak it, and then that
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  Speaker 3: will obviously go out again for public feedback.
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  Speaker 2: But when you look at.
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  Speaker 3: The convention center, when you look at the space in
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  Speaker 3: the waterfront, when you look at the harbor views from
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  Speaker 3: that site, and when you think about the incredible Larochie
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  Speaker 3: Cultural Center being built across the road, it's a no brainer.
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  Speaker 3: Like our destination, if you're going to book a conference,
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  Speaker 3: you want to be able to have a genuine cultural
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  Speaker 3: experience at that cultural center. You want to be able
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  Speaker 3: to have great accommodation in Darwin, and this adds to that,
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  Speaker 3: and you want a world class convention center, which we
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  Speaker 3: already haven't run, so we hope it's a great package.
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  Speaker 2: Add to that surf.
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  Speaker 3: Parks, tropical lagoons, heated and temperature control pools, and new
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  Speaker 3: restaurants and everything else we're doing with the master plan.
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  Speaker 2: It's really exciting for Dawn.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what, I think people will be
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  Speaker 1: really interested to see that updated master plan as well,
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  Speaker 1: so we will make sure that we share that as
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  Speaker 1: soon as we can so they can get a.
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  Speaker 2: Good look at it.
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  Speaker 1: Sam Burke, the general manager of the Darwen Waterfront Corporation,
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  Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie,