Aquis welcomes environmental approval

Sunday 3rd of May 2015

The Aquis Group has welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to grant environmental approval for the Aquis Great Barrier Reef Resort at Yorkeys Knob.

Aquis project director Pat Flanagan said the decision by the Environment Minister’s delegate was another significant milestone in the progress of the project.

“This approval demonstrates that the project has been developed to be sensitive to the site’s environmental values and respects the values of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef and wet tropics rainforests,” Flanagan said.

“The completion of the environmental approvals and planning assessment means that the only outstanding item to be completed is the casino agreement with the State Government, which we hope to achieve in a timely manner.”

The most recent approval, combined with the Coordinator-General’s Assessment Report, completes the environmental assessment of the proposal.

Aquis is currently negotiating with the Queensland Government on the terms of an agreement relating to the gaming component of the integrated resort. The agreement will allow the project to proceed to the next stage of development.

“We continue to have productive discussions with the government and look forward to announcing an agreement in the near future,” Mr Flanagan said.

The $8.15 billion Aquis project is expected to create up to 3,750 construction jobs in stage one, 3,500 construction jobs in stage two and 20,000 jobs when the resort is operating.

It will also generate up to $988 million in Gross Regional Product during the construction of Stage One and $10.2 billion at full operation.