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

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

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

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

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

Oct

8

Linkin Park Cancels Macao Concert

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

Linkin Park has been forced to cancel their upcoming Music For Relief Concerts in Mainland China, Macau and Taipei as lead vocalist Chester Bennington has sustained a back injury and is under doctor’s orders to refrain from traveling or any physical activities. Linkin Park sincerely regrets this unavoidable cancellation and apologizes to fans for any disappointment caused. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.

The concerts were organized as fundraisers to benefit Sichuan, an area ravaged by a devastating earthquake this past May. However, thanks to generous donations from concert promoter Emma Ticketmaster and Linkin Park, funds will still be contributed to the band’s nonprofit organization, Music for Relief, and matched by the World Bank. Read more

Sep

30

Cotai Strip hotels and “The Phoenix”

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

I was just browsing the new Cotai Strip® website and noticed some new descriptions and pictures of the hotels that are being built by Las Vegas Sands for the Cotai Strip.  It should just take a second so you should check it out : http://www.cotaistrip.com.mo/en/show/hotels.

Also, I noticed something that I have never seen referenced before, “The Phoenix” on the Cotai Strip.  I dont think its something new, but the actual description is a bit light on the details:

Beside the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip® will soon be the home of the world’s most recognized hotel brands. Together, three contemporary hotels form a “Phoenix” in what is set to become one of the most intriguing iconic structures at Cotai Strip®.

Here’s the picture of The Phoenix from the website:

The Phoenix on the Cotai Strip

Sep

27

Macao tourism infrastructure study

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

Commissioned by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao S.A.R. and conducted by the Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT), a study was completed which aimed at providing reference estimates on the optimal social carrying capacity of Macao’s tourism industry and suggest whether the existing tourism facilities and services are adequate to cope with the rapid growth in visitor arrivals.

The survey was divided into 2 parts: The first part consisted of questionnaire interviews, on 44 selected days of 2007 which covered weekdays, weekends and days within the Golden Week periods. Both local residents and visitors were asked to express their perception on crowdedness and satisfaction with environmental quality, local transportation, food & beverage and retail services quality and waiting time, and border clearance performance. A total of 5158 residents and 5120 visitors were sampled. The interview locations included Leal Senado Square, Portas do Cerco, A-Ma Temple, Ruins of St.Paul, Cunha Street, Horta E Costa, Mesquita and New Yaohan. The second part was to collect data and information from government departments and stakeholders in several tourism-related sectors to estimate their full-load capacity. The study covered 8 main services and facilities, namely hotel accommodation, restaurants and dining, buses, taxis, ferries, border clearance, tourist attractions and inbound tour handling.  Read more

Sep

13

Official Cotai Strip® website

Filed Under Cotai Strip® | Leave a Comment

I’ve been wondering for a long time when Las Vegas Sands would launch an official Cotai Strip website.  It looks like the wait is over!

CotaiStrip.com.mo is now up and running for all your Cotai Strip needs.  Up until now, it looked like they had been using the Venetian Macao website for the Cotai Strip and it really only contained a few paragraphs of very basic information.  The new website looks like it will be a one stop shop.

Sep

8

Miss Macau 2008 crowned

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

florence loi miss macau

Congratulations to Florence Loi, who was just crowned Miss Macau 2008 at the Cotai Strip Cotai Arena. Out of 10 contestants, she was contestant #8. A coincidence? Read more

Aug

30

Cotai advertising campaign

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

If anyone has seen any of these ads, please forward them to me so I can post them to share with everyone.  Here’s the article from BrandRepublic.Asia:
Macau’s Cotai Strip launch activities continue in earnest today with the launch of a new advertising campaign for several key properties.

Developed by OgilvyOne Hong Kong and OMD, the campaign promotes the new Plaza Casino, which is located at the new Four Seasons Hotel next to the Venetian Macao.

The campaign also includes TV and outdoor work for Zaia, the new Cirque Du Soleil act which is debuting at a purpose-built theater at the Venetian.

The Plaza Casino campaign sees several newspaper front pages wrapped with the print and advertorial advertisements.  Read more

— Next Page →