Nov

24

Cotai Strip might get new financing

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Las Vegas Sands, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

Reuters is reporting that Goldman Sachs could be working on a $1 billion loan for Las Vegas Sands’ Cotai Strip, and the article indicates that sources speculate that the loan could be used for recently suspended sites 5 and 6. A $1 billion loan is a far cry from the $5 billion plus loan they had been previously hoping for, but you’ve got to start somewhere I suppose.  Read more

Nov

24

MGM Grand Cotai on hold

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, MGM Cotai | Leave a Comment

Here’s a shocker…another Cotai hotel casino project postponed.  Macau is starting to feel like Vegas.

Macau Daily Times:

Now, even Macau is being affected by the global financial crises with MGM Mirage announcing on Friday it too will suspend plans to build a second resort in Macau.

Currently, MGM Grand located in Nape is the company’s only hotel-casino in the SAR, however it had plans to develop another second property also in the Cotai Strip.

MGM Mirage not only has frozen plans to build a second resort in Macau but also to develop a large swath of vacant land at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.

“What we are experiencing now is unique,” said Alan Feldman, senior vice president for MGM Mirage, referring to consumer confidence levels sinking to historic lows.

Nov

22

Hengqin Island update

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Hengqin Island | Leave a Comment

BlogMacau.info reports: Authorities in Guangdong stressed that they will develop the island of Hengqin ‘autonomously’, in contrast to Macau’s Chief Executive remarks that the island should be developed jointly between Guangdong and Macau. Vice-Governor of the Province Wan Qingliang (萬慶良) told Macau and Hong Kong media delegation that the time has matured to further develop Hengqin Island, and that ‘consensus from all sides’ and conditions for further development have been formed. The island could become a ‘new brand’ to elevate the international competitivness in the Pearl River Delta region and in setting up a modernised industrial bastion. Wan also told reporters that the master plan of Hengqin has been reported to the Central Government, and clear support has been received.

Read more

Nov

15

Quick Note

Filed Under Cotai | Leave a Comment

I know I’ve slacked off on this site for the past few weeks.  See, November is my two year anniversary running Cotai Casino News and no one remembered, so my feelings have been hurt and didnt want to write on this anymore.  Just kidding. Ive been really busy developing a few other non casino related sites and it has taken up all my free time.  Im pretty much done so I’ll get back to this sometime next week and will probably blog more frequently than I had been in the past.

Nov

3

Ok, now its official…i think

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Venetian Macao, Four Season's Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

Looks like the Cotai Strip condos are back up for sale.  From today’s LVS filing:

On October 29, 2008, the office of the Secretary for Transportation and Public Works for the Macau Special Administrative Region of The People’s Republic of China (the “Macau Government”) published an amendment (the “Land Concession Amendment”) to the Land Concession by Lease (the “Land Concession”) between the Macau Government and Venetian Cotai, Limited (”VCL”), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (the “Company”) in Macau’s Official Gazette (the “Official Gazette”).

The Land Concession Amendment separated the retail mall use from the hotel use for Lot II (the “Four Seasons Macao Hotel”) and authorized VCL to subdivide the Four Seasons Macao Hotel into four independent strata title units consisting of the following: (i) a five star hotel, including gaming areas, entertainment, leisure, restaurants and other supporting areas (112,167 square meters); (ii) a four star apartment-hotel, which corresponds to the most luxurious classification of apartment-hotel permitted in Macau (101,028 square meters); Read more

Nov

3

New City of Dreams multimedia

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment

New official website: http://cityofdreams.com.mo/

Pamphlet 

Oct

28

Cotai Strip condos NOT for sale?

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Venetian Macao, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

cotai macau hotels

This is all so confusing.

Las Vegas Sands put this press release out just a few days ago which said, “The legal separation of the property will allow the company to transfer the apartment hotel building into a separate cooperative holding company and to sell cooperative interests in the tower in a manner similar to the way apartment units are sold in New York City and other international locations.”

Now, the Macau Daily Times is reporting the following:  Read more

Oct

25

Travel restrictions may ease

Filed Under Macau, Macao, TOURISM, TRAVEL | Leave a Comment

The Central Government in Beijing may relax restrictions imposed to mainland Chinese residents to visit Macau, in a move to save Macau from possible economic downturn.Meanwhile, academics in Guangdong said in a seminar in Guangzhou that Beijing has included Macau’s development positioning into the Development Plan of the Pearl River Delta Region.

Director of the Insitute of International Economy of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, Qiu Shan (丘杉) said that the document will explicitly indicate that the Central Government ‘fully supports Macau to reinforce its position as a world-class tourism and leisure centre’. Read more

Oct

22

Cotai Strip condos for sale

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Las Vegas Sands, Real Estate, Four Season's Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

cotai strip real estate condos

Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced today that the government of the Special Administrative Region of Macao has approved the legal separation of the company’s Four Seasons apartment hotel tower from the other components of its Four Seasons parcel on the Cotai Strip®. The legal separation of the property will allow the company to transfer the apartment hotel building into a separate cooperative holding company and to sell cooperative interests in the tower in a manner similar to the way apartment units are sold in New York City and other international locations. In addition, the approval from the Macao government clears the way for the company to monetize the cash flow generated by The Shoppes at Four Seasons, its 200,000 square foot luxury retail mall, which is also located on the Four Seasons parcel. Read more

Oct

19

MPEL Provides an Update of Construction Progress and Financing at City of Dreams

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment

Melco Crown Entertainment Limited seeks to update the status of progress at City of Dreams, its flagship integrated casino hotel resort development in Macau, in response to recent turbulence in global financial market conditions and certain press reports.City of Dreams remains fully on target to open to the public during the first half of 2009. Construction activity will be maintained at maximum capacity through the end of 2008 to deliver the construction timetable to completion. Our projected budget for phases one and two of City of Dreams also remains unchanged.  Read more

Oct

15

Cotai Strip shopping assets may be sold

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Las Vegas Sands, Shopping, Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

From Reuters:

Las Vegas Sands Corp might spin off billions of dollars of Macau retail assets into a property fund, but is under no pressure for a quick sale despite problems funding ambitious casino expansion, an executive said.

The company, which runs the giant Venetian Macao casino and is building more hotels and casinos in the territory, floated the idea of selling its shops into a listed property trust a couple of years ago.

But with stock markets tanking in the last year, hitting real estate investment trusts (REITs) hard, Las Vegas Sands is now considering packaging the property into a fund for institutional investors.

“It’s something we’ll look at, whether it’s a wholesale fund or a REIT,” David Sylvester, the company’s head of retail in Asia, told Reuters in an interview.  Read more

Oct

11

More Macau sex

Filed Under Macau, Macao, MICE, Cotai Strip® | 1 Comment

macau sexAs if there wasn’t enough sex going on in Macau! The Cotai Strip’s Venetian Macao will host an Asian sex(ok, its actually “adult entertainment”) expo this December 4-7. Read more from the press release:

Asia Adult Expo (referred as “AAE”) will be held at the Venetian Convention & Exhibition Centre, Macau from Dec 4-7, 2008. Vertical Expo Services Co Ltd (referred as “Vertical Expo”) presents AAE as the foremost and professional adult event it at the heart of Asia – Asia’s Vegas.

Dr. Ng Man Lun, vice-president of the Hong Kong Sex Education Association and the Associate Director and Honorary Professor of the HKU Family Institute, said “This expo is a golden opportunity for the public to see a wide range of sex-related products.”

Since the launch of AAE, the adult industry and associations have been responding positively and involving in the event. Hong Kong Sex Education Association has joined hand-in-hand with the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, Society for the study of Sexualities and Sex-pol, and the 10% club to support AAE. Held concurrently with AAE, they will organize the third “Hong Kong Macau Sex Cultural Festival 2008 – Macau exhibition” to promote sex from an educational angel.  Read more

— Next Page →