Echo Entertainment, which holds Brisbane's existing casino licence at Treasury Casino, has beat out James Packer's Crown Resorts in its bid to build a new casino complex on Brisbane's waterfront.

Echo's proposal includes five hotels, 50 restaurants, a casino and 12 football fields of open space. The design includes an iconic arc-shaped building with a ballroom, publicly accessible sky deck, and a moonlight cinema. The development at the Queen's Wharf precinct will also deliver three residential towers and a pedestrian bridge to South Bank.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that an independent panel had signed off on the plans on Monday afternoon, saying the development "will change Brisbane's CBD." The project will create some 3,000 jobs during the construction phase from 2017 to 2022, and some 8,000 permanent jobs after that.

Echo's financial partners in the project are Hong Kong's Far East Consortium and Chinese conglomerate Chow Tai Fook. Design partners include Grimshaw Architects, Cusp Landscape Architecture and Urban Design and Cottee Parker Architects. The master plan component of the bid was managed by Urbis who also coordinated Echo's initial Expression of Interest submission for this project.