By João Paulo Meneses The numbers of the nine COTAI resorts
Doing the numbers W
MGM COTAI is not only the smallest of the existing
Macau, it was also one of the most time- consuming to build. Very
Venetian Macao which was the fastest and biggest!
different from
integrated resorts in
hen SJM opens the doors of its Lisbon Palace, COTAI will have nine integrated casinos and resorts (IR). Given the lack of space on the site and the repeated unwillingness
of Macau policymakers to build casinos on the new landfills, these nine gaming and tourism complexes will be a very representative sample of what we can expect from gambling in Macau in the future. These nine IRs have very different histories, varied
contexts and innumerable constraints (one of them the lack of information) that make any comparison difficult. Even so, the-near 72,000 square metres of MGM
COTAI make it the smallest of the nine, the only one boasting less than 100,000 square metres of construction. City of Dreams (115,000 sq.m) and Studio City
(130,000 sq.m) are the closest. The big difference lies is in the construction deadline. Melco took three years to open its two properties on COTAI (although work on Studio City began in 2007 it barely progressed beyond its foundations, resuming in 2012), while MGM necessitated 4.5 years. Yet, in absolute terms the latest of Macau’s gaming and tourism complexes is not the most time consuming. Sands COTAI Central was started in 2006 and
only opened in April 2012 – around 6 years, therefore. ‘Work started in 2006 but the project went through a period of suspension due to the global economic crisis. During this period, work on the project came to a complete stop and it was therefore quite a challenge to restart the project,’ according to the main contractor, Hsin Chong. About six years is also what it took to build Phase 1 of the Galaxy.
18 MARCH 2018 MGM COTAI In this case, we must take into account that we are
talking about one of the largest construction areas of COTAI (550,000 sq.m) although the company recognises that a project that should have taken three years – 2008 was the year it should have been ready – ended up taking twice as long. ‘Under the influence of the global financial turmoil, the Group made a strategic decision to slow the pace of development in COTAI with the aim of completing construction and opening the project as economic conditions improved. We wish to reconfirm that construction continues on COTAI, but at a slower pace,’ we can read in the company report for 2008. The following year Galaxy set the new date of ‘early 2011’, which was eventually confirmed. If SJM inaugurates its Lisboa Palace in February of
next year as some analysts anticipate, while the company is still talking about opening in 2018, SJM’s first IR will have taken exactly five years to build (February 2014-February 2019). This is followed by the four years it took to build
Wynn Palace and The Parisian Macao. And then the fastest – the ones that took about
three years. We have already mentioned two – Studio City and City of Dreams – but the grand prize goes
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