Federal Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility backs two major Cairns projects

Two major Cairns projects have secured concessional financing from the federal Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, with the NAIF board approving a $190 million loan for the proposed Cairns Waterfront Hotel and Conference Centre and a $150 million loan to James Cook University for its Great Barrier Reef Research and Innovation Hub.

The NAIF, which was established by the Commonwealth to provide long-term concessional debt to catalyse private investment in northern Australia's underdeveloped infrastructure, said both Cairns projects met its criteria of infrastructure that would generate significant economic and social returns for the region and would not proceed or would proceed significantly later without concessional support.

Federal Northern Australia Minister Murray Watt said the two approvals underscored Cairns's central role in northern Australia's economic future. "Cairns is the hub of north Australia's tourism economy and the gateway to the reef. These two projects invest in both those pillars at once," he said.

The Cairns Waterfront Hotel, a 320-room conference-capable property on the city's reclaimed inner harbour, has been in planning for seven years and has been the subject of multiple developer expressions of interest that fell away due to financing constraints. The NAIF concessional loan reduces the cost of debt to the point where the project achieves a return sufficient to attract private equity capital, with the developer having confirmed its equity commitment is conditional on the NAIF approval.

JCU vice-chancellor Sandra Harding said the research hub NAIF funding would transform the university's capacity to attract international research partnerships and generate the kind of reef science that the global conservation community urgently needed.

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