MARK BROWN
building three- and four-billion-dollar properties on the Cotai side, and they’re in the middle of that; Mr Wynn is also in Massachusetts, they have their Las Vegas properties, numbers are dipping – no-one at that moment was looking to invest in a little island in the Pacific called Saipan. So when the tender went out, it was bid for by a real estate company from Hong Kong, the guys running the Tinian casino, and our company. A few people might be regretting not bidding, because our numbers are incredible. When you think of Saipan you think it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s actually not. It’s more convenient to go to for mainland Chinese than Macau – and that’s the VIPs that we have coming to gamble. It’s a four-or five- hour flight direct from Beijing, Shanghai etc, and it is visa-free. It’s so convenient. You don’t land in the middle of a city with brown water and black air, you’re in God’s Country here. The water is clear like a pool, we have beachfront barbecues with flame dancers… You always hear that VIPs don’t care about that, that all they care about is the baccarat table and drinking, that’s just not true; they are visiting with wives, girlfriends, in groups. We have bought some homes on the island that we
have made into private villas, six- and seven-bed villas with VIP service. It’s a VIP six-star experience that really cannot be duplicated anywhere in the world, and that’s why it’s working so well.
CI: You have a temporary casino facility at the moment, don’t you? Even that wasn’t cheap, but
the numbers are justifying Imperial Pacific Resort’s predecessor… MB: Our temporary facility in the DFS shopping mall is doing incredible numbers; when we say temporary casino, it doesn’t do it justice because we spent $25 million on it. Paul Steelman helped us out with that, and he is also building our Grand Mariana. He was the first phone call I made when I got here; the second was the whole group of internal construction guys that worked for Sheldon Adelson and LVS, who basically built the Sands, Venetian, Four Seasons and more. We went after that internal management team for the construction, and the number one casino architect to design it. We opened the temporary casino in such a short time; our license was granted to us in August 2014, I joined in November that year. February 2015 we had a meeting to discuss opening a temporary casino, which would also serve as a way to train staff because we have to hire locals and get them ready for the Imperial Pacific Resort. We looked everywhere for somewhere to put this, and the shopping mall is in the heart of the tourist district. Meanwhile, the general manager of the DFS mall told me that they were about to remodel half of the mall, and did we want to do a deal? I said, of course! Now it looks as though it’s always been there and
it’s surrounded by high-end retail – and that’s part of why the VIPs keep coming. They see the exclusive shopping centre, the private junket areas, the villas and suites we have… We officially opened that in November 2015 with 32 mass gaming tables, sixteen
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