Four Groups Vie for Singapore Casino
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 4/10/2006
Four companies have submitted bids to develop Singapore's first casino resort.
The largest is Las Vegas Sands' $3.6 billion plan for the Marina Bay Sands, a resort with 2,500 hotel rooms and 1.2 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space. Scheduled for a 2009 opening, the project would offer 1 million sq. ft. of retail space, three entertainment venues, a premium player venue called the Paiza Club and the region's first museum.
Las Vegas Sands called its development "possibly the most expensive integrated resort ever proposed." LVS is also the only solo bidder, after its partner, hotel developer City Developments, dropped out last January.
LVS emphasized its expertise in Asia as well as "a global book of business in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) industry" as advantages that would help reinvigorate Singapore as an international hub for meetings and conventions. The company operates the Sands Macau and is building the Venetian Macau Casino Resort, in addition to operating the Sands Expo & Convention Center and the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.
LVS isn't the only Las Vegas-based casino company in the race. MGM Mirage has teamed up with CapitaLand on a Singapore proposal, and Harrah's Entertainment, Keppel Land and Star have formed a consortium to build Caesars Singapore.
Competition is fierce for the city-state's first casino resort. The MGM group has proposed a permanent Cirque du Soleil show, while the Harrah's group promised a theme park surrounding iPort, the 16-story, 1 million sq. ft. immersive entertainment experience to be produced by director James Cameron.
Also part of the Harrah's and Keppel bid are the Centre Pompidou gallery, architect Daniel Libeskind, Anschutz Entertainment Group, venue manager SMG, Suntec Singapore Intl. Convention & Exhibition Centre, retailers Taubman Asia and Gordon Group Holdings, and retail designer Peter Marino.
Malaysia's Genting Intl. and Star Cruises, meanwhile, made a $3.1 billion bid for the Singapore Entertainment & Events Destination, which would include more than 5,000 hotel rooms with a 2010 opening date. Their proposal calls for a hall that could seat 5,500 and a grand ballroom for 6,000. Developers didn't disclose the amount of exhibit space planned.
