Inside Asian Gaming

Dec 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 11 Cover Story “The market is changing,” observes Mr Friedman. “When I first started coming to Macau eight years ago, it was like Vegas when it was still just a gaming destination. The vast majority of visitors were male. Now it’s about 40% female. Doesn’t that tell you a lot about where retail is going, where en- tertainment is going? And that’s with a small amount of development.” Of course, the changing demographic of visitor to Macau “changes the types of offer- ings you need to be successful. It changes everything,” says Mr Friedman. “Most of the visitors fromthemainland to Hong Kong are spending four days in Hong Kong and one day in Macau. What if they stayed two days in Macau? The numbers be- come astronomical, and the impact on the demand for retail will be astronomical. And the impact on entertainment, we believe, will be astronomical. As Macau changes and develops, and there are better places to stay, nicer hotels, more interesting properties to stay in, and the retail component is added, why wouldn’t people stay longer?” The MSC revolution Mr Friedman has accumulated a great deal of experience developing a variety of major casino, hotel and retail projects in the US, and has both been directly involved in and witnessed at close hand various aspects of the transformation of Vegas into a diversi- fied tourist destination. The Macao Studio City (MSC) project presented “an opportunity to take every- thing I’ve done in the past and everything I’ve learned in the past, and do it better.” MSC is being built on a 32.3-acre plot ad- jacent to The Venetian along the burgeoning Cotai Strip. The site is located right next to the new Lotus Bridge immigration check- point, linking the complex directly to Zhu- hai’s Hengqin Island, and allowing MSC to claim it is “Where Cotai Begins™”. The property is slated to open in mid-2009 at a cost of US$2 billion, and is billed as Asia’s first leisure resort property combining theatre, television and film pro- duction facilities and retail, with gaming, entertainment and world-class hotels. MSC will feature 1,902 luxurious hotel rooms and suites, a 2,300-seat theatre, a 4,000-seat multi-purpose arena, a 40,000 sq. ft Playboy Mansion and a 500,000 sq. ft casino operat- ing under the license of Melco PBL Enter- tainment (Macau) Ltd. MSC will also boast a 1.4 million sq. ft Studio Retail™ complex, created in partnership with Taubman Cen- ters, Inc, with live production pods scat- tered throughout the upscale unique-con- cept mall. “We’ve brought in some of the greatest