Travellers breaks ground for $1B casino complex

MANILA, Philippines–INTEGRATED gaming resort developer Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. on Wednesday broke ground for a new $1.1-billion complex called Resorts World Bayshore City, targeted to create 8,000 new jobs when it opens at Pagcor Entertainment City by the last quarter of 2018.

Travellers, a partnership between tycoon Andrew Tan-led Alliance Global Group Inc. and the Genting group, seeks to replicate in Pagcor City the success of Resorts World Manila in Newport City, the country’s first integrated complex, which is also being expanded.

This new integrated gaming resort, which will rise on a 31-hectare site in Bayshore City, is a project of Resorts World Bayshore City Inc. (RWBCI), a 95-percent subsidiary of Travellers.

The first phase of the Bayshore City complex will offer at least 1,500 rooms, operated by international brands such as the Genting group’s “Genting Grand” and “Crockfords Tower.”

Resorts World Manila executive vice president Steve Riley told reporters during the ground-breaking rites that for the first phase of development that would occupy 12 hectares of the site, Bayshore City would have 77,000 square meters of retail space, a 3,000-seater theater and multiple cinemas apart from the gaming space. The complex will also offer residential condominium towers as well as conference and exhibition facilities.

Being the last among the four gaming licensees to open its complex in Pagcor City, Riley said the “last-mover’ advantage would be Bayshore City’s ability to offer something “new, shiny and fantastic” apart from benefiting from the foot traffic already developed in the area by other licensees.

The first complex in Pagcor City, Bloomberry Resorts Corp.’s Solaire Resort & Casino, opened early last year and is opening a new wing before yearend.

City of Dreams Manila, a partnership between the SM group and Macau’s Melco Crown group, is set to open before the end of the year. Another complex, Manila Bay Resorts of Japanese tycoon Kazuo Okada, is under construction.

Travellers expects to be the biggest leisure and entertainment company in the Philippines, with the two Resort World properties offering a total of about 5,100 hotel rooms, said Travellers president Kingson Sian.

Originally posted at 4:20 pm | Wednesday, October 1, 2014

RELATED STORIES

Resorts World Bayshore City set to break ground

Travellers to spend $600M for Resorts World expansion

Read more...