Inside Asian Gaming

November 2013 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 21 with the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. But Mr Adelson was just up the Strip in those days in ownership of the old Sands, and he had the Comdex computer mega-show for which he’d already built the largest privately funded convention facility in the world at Sands Expo, and certainly he’d grasped the implications. The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian Las Vegas proved so successful that LVS was able to flip it, together with The Shoppes at The Palazzo next door, to General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based REIT giant, for roughly $1 billion. At $1,000-plus in sales per square foot today, three times the US average, it is still one of the most profitable malls in the country. Plans for Macau were to be on a grander scale. Within a year of the opening of Venetian Macao, with its sights on the growing power of China’s consumers, LVS had designated a section of land it hoped to develop next door to what would become Sands Cotai Central for a 500,000-square-foot multi-story mall called Flagship Luxury, “designed as the ultimate expression of contemporary retailing for the fashion forward luxury goods sector,”according to a press release of the time. As Mr Sylvester outlined the thinking—he had joined the company in 2005 to head the fledgling Retail Development Asia division—“It is no longer enough to simply understand the retail landscape. It requires vision and it requires the resources to realize that vision, somethingwhichhappens only under rare circumstances.” It turned out that Flagship Luxury wasn’t to be. But the vision has proven unerring. “Demand for prime retail space in Asia from international luxury brands … is as strong as our commitment to attract the most distinguished retail concepts to our properties,” Mr Sylvester said. “I believe what we are offering those brands is a genuinely unprecedented and compelling proposition.” He said that in the spring of 2008, eight months after The Grand Canal Shoppes opened at the Venetian and about four months before the debut of the “height of luxury retail,” as LVS would tout the Shoppes at Four Seasons. Last year, Shoppes at Four Seasons was expanded by 51,000 square feet and still ran at 92% occupancy, delivering $17.5 million more in revenue than the year before for a total of $83.4 million, a 26.5% increase over 2011 and more than twice the revenue the property generated from its 360 rooms and suites. It’s on a pace this year to surpass that and then some, with revenue in the third quarter alone up 39.4% year on year to $32.2 million. The Grand Canal Shoppes next door generated $45.5 million, a 23% increase and almost $9 millionmore than the Venetian booked in room sales. Company-wide, mall revenues are up 113% since 2010, the year Marina Bay Sands opened with shopping that now totals more than 637,000 square feet. More than 99% of this has been Asian money. Through the first nine months of 2013, mall revenue in Macau is up 34% over the same period last year. LVS’ original plans for Macau were to be on a grander scale. Within a year of the opening of the Venetian the company had designated a section of land it hoped to develop next door to what would become Sands Cotai Central for “the ultimate expression of contemporary retailing,” as it was trumpeted at the time—a 500,000-square- foot multi-story mall called Flagship Luxury. The Shoppes at Four Seasons was expanded last year by 51,000 square feet and delivered $17.5 million more in revenue than the year before for a total of $83.4 million, a 26.5% increase over 2011, more than twice the revenue the property generated from its rooms and suites. IN FOCUS