Works on resort to start soon
Genting HK to begin phase one of RM3.4B Resorts World Bayshore
Genting Hong Kong Ltd, an 18.4% unit of Genting Malaysia Bhd, will start physical works soon on phase one of its US$1.1bil Resorts World Bayshore near Manila.
GENTING Hong Kong Ltd, an 18.4% unit of Genting Malaysia Bhd, will start physical works soon on phase one of its US$1.1bil (RM3.41bil) Resorts World Bayshore here, a project that is set to be three times the size of the existing Resorts World Manila.
“Following the success of Resorts World Manila, we hope to do the ground-breaking soon for the first phase of Resorts World Bayshore. We have already signed up Westin as one of the hotels there,” Genting Hong Kong president David Chua said at a roundtable with international media recently.
“But we are not going to rush into it. We will do it our way and not the Macau or Singapore way.”
It is understood that construction is scheduled to begin next year with a target to finish the first phase by 2016 involving 16ha and an initial US$550mil (RM1.7bil) investment.
When completed, Resorts World Bayshore will hold two upscale hotels with 800 rooms, a grand opera that seats 3,000, a mall, and residential towers centred around a casino that is two times larger than Resorts World Manila’s. Both integrated resorts are 20 minutes apart.
Resorts World Bayshore forms part of an ambitious push by the Philippines government and spear headed by its Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp to build a 100ha gambling and leisure haven to rival Macau and Las Vegas, dubbed Entertainment City.
The development will take up eight sq km of reclaimed land on Manila Bay.
Four concessions have been granted to private developers including Genting Hong Kong’s joint venture company, Travellers International Hotel Group Inc, to provide 5,000 hotel rooms that can accommodate up to a million tourists annually as well as more than a million sq m of retail, entertainment and gaming.
The now three-year-old Resorts World Manila, which houses three hotels, a mall, theater, cinema and 24-hour casino in the Newport City area near the Philippine capital, was cruise ship operator Genting Hong Kong’s first land-based attraction.
Genting Hong Kong had partnered local magnate Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Inc, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, to set up the 10ha Resorts World Manila.
Genting group chairman Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay officiated at the ground-breaking last Friday to mark the third phase expansion of Resorts World Manila that would add some 3ha, over 1,000 hotel rooms, the Sheraton and another yet-to-benamed international hotel, gaming facilities, and retail space. This is expected to be completed in 2016.
Resorts World Manila’s visitor numbers have breached five million a year, according to a Genting Hong Kong executive at the event.
The occupancy at its hotels has also put the resort in the top seven league table by occupancy in Metro Manila, he added.
On its cruise business, the firm, which operates the Star Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines, planned to expand its fleet to 22 ships by 2016 from 18 currently, another executive said.