$1.3-B Belle Grande Mla Bay set to open mid-2014

MANILA, Philippines - The upscale leisure developer of mall and banking conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) will join the party at the Entertainment City in the middle of next year.

The $1.3-billion Belle Grande Manila Bay of SM Group and Macau casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. will beef up the country’s entertainment portfolio for tourists, officials said.

“Probably June or July, mid-2014,” said Willy Ocier, vice-chairman of SM’s gaming arm and upscale leisure firm Belle Corp., when asked about the timeline for the opening of the casino complex.

“It is not just a casino but a whole lot of entertainment all in support of the tourism industry in the Philippines,” Ocier said, adding that it will offer 920 hotel rooms.

The local unit of Melco formally inked Friday its partnership with Belle Corp. for Belle Grande.

The government is grooming the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s (Pagcor) 120-hectare Entertainment City along Manila Bay as a competitor of Las Vegas, Singapore and Macau gaming hubs.

Belle and Melco, for their part, will be the second casino operator in the Entertainment City, next to the $1.2-billion Solaire Resort and Casino of port magnate Enrique Razon that opened Saturday.

Melco, which will operate the Belle Grande, will invest an initial $650 million for the project’s first phase.

“We will be spending almost $650 million also. By the end of this year, we probably would have spent $580 million for Belle only,” Ocier said.

“We are catering to the middle income foreigners in the region. Our thrust is to get more tourists in the Philippines,” Ocier said.

Belle targets to attract foreigners, particularly high rollers, from China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.