James Packer's Barangaroo casino greenlight

James Packer's Crown Resorts has secured approval for his $2 billion Sydney casino at Barangaroo.

Mr Packer, who owns 53 per cent of Crown, once described the development of the Sydney casino as his biggest priority.

"This is an extremely important day for Crown," said Mr Packer.

"It has taken us four years of constant effort to get to this point and now we can begin building our vision, to give Sydney one of the world's great luxury hotels. We will now work tirelessly to ensure Crown Sydney meets the very high expectations of the government and the people of this city."

Crown had originally targeted a late 2019 completion for the casino with luxury apartments but it is now early 2021 as the likely opening date.

Crown chairman Rob Rankin said excavation work would start shortly.