Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | May 2012 18 In Focus Melco Crown Entertainment is also evaluating thenext phaseof its development plan at City of Dreams.The company states in its latest annual report: “We currently expect the next phase of development to include a hotel featuring either an apartment hotel or a general hotel and anticipate we will finance this phase separately from the rest of City of Dreams.” Melco Crown admits the project remains vague: “As of the date of this annual report, the next phase of development of City of Dreams is at a preliminary stage without any definitive plans regarding design, capital commitment, construction schedule or budget.” Galaxy goes first Galaxy Entertainment Group required no approval at all to commence development of Galaxy Macau Phase 2, and on 26th April announced it had already started foundational work on what will probably be the first new property of Cotai’s next wave. The last property of the first wave was unveiled earlier in the month—the first phase of Las Vegas Sands Corp’s sprawling Sands Cotai Central, which is set to be completed next year, when it will boast a total complement of 5,800 hotel rooms and suites, 1.2 million square feet of meetings and convention space and 300,000 square feet of gaming space. According to GEG, Phase 2 will cost approximately HK$16 billion (US$2.1 billion) and virtually double the size of GalaxyMacau to 1 million square meters. That accounts for roughly 50% of GEG’s total contiguous Cotai parcel (which comprises the biggest land bank on Cotai at 2 million square meters), leaving plenty of room for further development. Phase 2 is scheduled for completion in mid-2015 and key features include: • Two new luxury hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton’s first ever all-suite hotel and the world’s largest JWMarriott, for a total of 1,300 additional rooms and suites and a property-wide grand total of more than 3,600 rooms and suites across five luxury hotels; • Expanding retail space to more than 100,000 square meters and more than 200 stores; • Increasing meeting, event and banquet space to a capacity of more than 3,000 guests; • Enhancing the world’s largest sky- Cotai Reaches New Heights At the 11th April opening of Sands Cotai Central—comprising Conrad and Holiday Inn hotels, as well as Shoppes Cotai Central—Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Sands China Ltd. Chairman Sheldon Adelson spoke animatedly to the assembled crowd of media, VIP and members of the public about his new three-tower Cotai centrepiece. Mr Adelson proclaimed: “The Cotai Strip is the largest tourism project on the planet. And it all began with a vision that started with a reclaimed area of sand and mud and has arrived to where we are now—one giant step closer to establishing Macau as one of the world’s top leisure, entertainment and business destinations. People said it couldn’t be done; but we have shown that nothing is impossible.” The lofty ambitions of the new property were embodied by the sky walkers 500 feet overhead, carefully crossing the 1,700-foot distance across the Cotai Strip between Sands Cotai Central and its sister property, The Venetian Macao, while balancing on a wire less than one-inch thick. Las Vegas Sands Corp and Sands China Ltd Chairman Sheldon Adelson stands center surveying his Cotai dominion and is flanked by wife Miriam and senior company executives Cotai gets more balanced—sky walker performance at the Sands Cotai Central opening