There are currently two casinos under construction in Singapore, Resorts World at Sentosa and the Marina Bay Sands. Both casinos are part of their much larger and diverse integrated resorts projects.
Resorts World at Sentosa
Resorts World at Sentosa (Chinese: 圣淘沙名胜世界) is the name of the integrated resort in development stages on the island of Sentosa, off the southern coast of Singapore. The S$5.2 billion dollar integrated resort is currently being planned by Genting International and Star Cruises, who hold a 75% and 25% stake in the project, respectively. The 49 hectare integrated resort will cost S$600 million solely for land, and S$1.6 billion just on a Universal Studios theme park called Universal Studios Singapore.
Marina Bay
Marina Bay Sands (Chinese: 滨海湾金沙综合娱乐城) is Singapore’s first casino, being developed by one of the world’s biggest gambling companies, Las Vegas Sands, at Marina South in central Singapore. Completion of the Integrated Resort is expected for 2009.
Las Vegas Sands has committed to invest S$3.85 billion in the project, not including the fixed $1.2 billion cost of the 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m²) site itself, which by most estimates will make it the most expensive casino in the world. In addition to the casino, other key components of the plan are three hotel towers with 2,500 rooms, a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) arts and sciences museum and a convention centre with 1,200,000 square feet (111,000 m²) of space, capable of accommodating over 52,000 people. The resort, inspired by card decks, was designed by Moshe Safdie. The company has promised to create 10,400 jobs for the project, 75 percent of them reserved for Singaporeans.
Bidding History
Here is the bidding war history of the two integrated resorts from wikipedia. I thought it was interesting so I added it.
In December 2004, the government of Singapore called for a request-for-concept (RFC), inviting industry players to submit concept proposals for the Integrated Resorts. A total of 19 bids were submitted during the RFC.
Marina Bay
Four companies/consortia placed their formal bids for the Marina Bay site, including
* Genting International/Star Cruises
* Harrah’s Entertainment/Keppel Land
* Las Vegas Sands
* MGM Mirage/CapitaLand
While Harrah’s and MGM were considered forerunners, Las Vegas Sands emerged as the surprise winner when it was announced on 26 May 2006. The Marina Bay Sands is billed as a centrepiece of the Marina Bay landscape when completed in 2009. Las Vegas Sands had committed the highest development investment of S$3.85 billion. With the land price and associated capital cost, its total investment will exceed S$5 billion. It would also be one of the most expensive casinos in the world. The design, by Moshe Safdie consists of three large shells containing conference halls and other business venues, three large hotel towers linked on their top floors by a sweeping sky garden, and a centerpiece museum which juts out onto the bay.
“Sands has submitted the best overall proposal that meets our economic tourism objective. In particular, the proposal will significantly strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading MICE destination and the proposal also possesses unique design elements that will provide a memorable image for Marina Bay.”
—Deputy Prime Minister Prof S Jayakumar
Sentosa
Three consortia submitted their proposals by the due date on 10 October 2006, including:
* Eighth Wonder with Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, Melco International Development Limited, Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. (Design by Peter Marino)
* Genting International with Star Cruises, Universal Studios (Design by Michael Graves)
* Kerzner International with Capitaland (Design by Frank Gehry)
A fourth contender, a Harrah’s Entertainment and Keppel Land consortium pulled out from the race four days before the deadline.
The bids were reviewed by a ministerial committee and a tender evaluation committee. The ministerial committee was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Prof S Jayakumar and included Tharman Shanmugaratnam, S Iswaran, Mah Bow Tan, Lim Hng Kiang, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Raymond Lim as its members.
Results were announced on 8 December 2006. The winning consortium was front-runner Genting International and Star Cruises with their bid for the Resorts World at Sentosa.
“Genting International & Star Cruises submitted the most compelling proposal overall that best meets our economic and tourism objectives. In particular, the proposal reflects our vision for the Sentosa IR as a large-scale, family resort with its host of world-class family leisure attractions and other strong offerings. We believe that the attractions will position Sentosa as a premier island resort for families and draw significant numbers of both new and repeat visitors to Singapore.”