Las Vegas Sands wins bid to build most expensive casino resort in the world.

[Mr. M]

http://www.asiaone.com/a1news/20060527_story1_1.html

Las Vegas Sands wins Marina Bay IR bid


By Krist Boo
May 27, 2006
The Straits Times

..

It promised to pump in $3.85 billion in investments, the largest amount of the four in a hotly-contested race that spanned 15 months.

Add to it another $1.2 billion in land costs, and The Marina Bay Sands will be the most expensive casino resort ever built.

Sands, owner of The Venetian in Las Vegas, won the hearts of a panel of judging architects with a design which had three slanting hotel towers overlooking three low-rise waterfront domes with roofs like waves.

Its trump card was its promise to bring convention visitors to Singapore with a 110,000 sq m centre. That is half of the convention space Singapore has earmarked for the downtown business district.

This pledge, and its offerings of an ArtScience museum devoted to the exploration of art and science and the connections between them, two performing theatres and six celebrity chefs, gave it top marks in tourism appeal, a category which counted for 40 per cent of the total score.

Singapore is aiming to double tourist arrivals to 17 million and triple tourism receipts to $30 billion by 2015.

The Sands is expected to add $2.7 billion, or 0.8 per cent, to the Singapore economy by 2015.

Sands, which is also expanding its current properties in Vegas and Macau, said last night that it will deliver on its promise to open its IR here in 2009.

Who amongst you would come to this.







I'll try to find larger pictures.



This is a huge project for Singapore - another one is coming up in Sentosa - I wonder how much of an international audience this would attract. It's a big gamble indeed for Sands.

 

[wltsm]

Looks a huge place, I'm sure it will bring a lot of money to the area!

 

[Alx]

Looks trully amazing.... im sure it will take a while to build, i cnat wait to see it in person, looks amazing with the science center and roof top garden.

 

[SDNR]

I have never seen anything quite like that massive roof garden/swimming pool complex ....and the way it is cantilevered is really dramatic .....I definitely would visit it.

 

[Mr. M]

I can't wait too. It will sure inject some life into the downtown Marina area. As it is still waiting to be developed, what we see now is just a really huge field and some sparse pockets of forests.

What I'm more curious about is how Dubai would respond to this. I'm sure they have massive projects already under their belt, but would they let Singapore take the crown for the superlative 'Most Expensive'? I'm sure they'll release a proposal of some sort for a massive casino & resort, if they hadn't done so yet.

About this casino, Singapore has long been forbidding casinos being built on the island because of the vices it brings to the country. Obviously the government had some change of heart, now that everybody's heating up the competition for tourists. But they're still 'forbidding' low-income residents nto access the casino - so to speak - by leveraging a steep entrance fee, as well as sky-high membership fees so as to put off those who should not/ cannot spend.

It would be ready by 2009, which isn't too far off.

I'm excited.

 

[Centurion]

The museum gives me Sydney opera vibes. Other than that it seem like thye want the whol complex to become a landmark like burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

 

[notic]

i'm glad singapore finally decided to give the casino the go ahead. i remember it was all over the news when i was their last year with everyone weighing in the pros and cons of having a gambling facility. i'll probably go there before 2009, but i'll definitly go take a look once its finished. looks amazing.

heres some photos of what the area looks like now (not exactly now, i took them last summer):

 

[Osnabrueck]

That looks astounding.

I can't wait to waste my money there.