Sands aiming to build ‘the most important gaming building in the world’ as it increases Marina Bay investment
Las Vegas Sands has completely revised its plans to add a new, fourth tower to Marina Bay Sands with the concept now being to build a fully-fledged and separate casino resort at the property with the investment going up from $3.3bn to $8bn.
The aim for Sands’ President and Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Dumont, is to construct ‘the most important gaming and hospitality building in the world’ in what is now being labelled IR2.0.
“We’re going to publish the final details over the next coming months, but the idea is that it has casino gaming in the podium and Sky Gaming in the tower,” siad Mr Dumont. “Our goal with this tower is to make it something very different. This is going to be the most important gaming and hospitality building in the world. It’s going to be the best hotel in the world.
“That’s our goal, the best service, the best experience, the best F&B. Our goal is to create something that is really extraordinary and helps address the Singapore market, which we know quite well now and has been consuming some of our highest-end products over the last 14 years. And so, we’re very aware of the market segments that we’re addressing. It’s going to be a very important globally significant asset for tourism, but it’s going to be very specific to a very high-end segment that we’re dealing with today. And so, hence, the investment.”
Robert Goldstein, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Sands, added: “The biggest single change [to our original plans] is that this will be a full-blown casino as opposed to just a hotel. We couldn’t be more enthusiastic about investing in the long-term growth of high-value leisure and business tourism in Singapore. The original concept was in effect an expansion of Marina Bay Sands, including Arena. Our new program creates a full-scale integrated resort development with a full suite of amenities, including gaming capacity.
“This will have a laser focus on the premium mass segment, a market that is growing to about $6.5bn of GGR, probably in ’24, we believe, easily get to $11 billion by quarter-end. This project reflects a lot of capital being directed at a very, very strong customer segment and a unique asset. We expect IR1 to get to $2.5bn, and we believe this new building can make in excess of $1bn on top of that.”
