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Speaker 1: We do know that a new hotel, which will be

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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,