Melco Resorts Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho insists he is unfazed by a delay of up to six months on completion of the company’s under-construction Cyprus integrated resort.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, the opening of the €550 million City of Dreams Mediterranean has been pushed back from mid-2021 until the end of the year due to changes to the initial design including expansion of infrastructure, layout adjustments, more guest rooms and a larger gaming floor. But Ho says such delays are to be expected.
“It’s the first time we’ve built in this market and they’ve never built anything this big before, so we are putting a lot of stress on the contractors and the sub-contractors with that building,” Ho said at a special media roundtable held in Macau earlier this week following Melco’s acquisition of a 19.99% stake in Australia’s Crown Resorts.
“It’s very different. It’s the biggest IR ever built in Europe and we want it to be representative of what we do – iconic.
“So a few months here and there really doesn’t affect us whatsoever. It’s not like we are in any difficult cash flow situation. We want to get it right, open it right and the Cypriot government has been super supportive so we want to make sure we deliver something they like.”
Ho revealed that piling work on the main City of Dreams Mediterranean structure was now complete.