Belle to bring in 3 hotel brands

MANILA, Philippines - The $1.3-billion Belle Grande Manila Bay, the second integrated casino complex that will open in the Entertainment City gaming hub, will bring in three top-notch hotel brands in the Philippines.

The agreement for five and six-star hotel brands will be finalized in September, an executive said.

“It will be two to three hotel brands because we have more than 900 rooms,” Belle Corp. vice-chairman Willy Ocier said in an interview.

“(The hotels) are five and six-star brands. Solaire is five and six-stars so we cannot be less than that,” Ocier said.

Belle, the gaming arm and upscale leisure developer of mall and banking conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), is building the $1.3-billion casino and hotel complex in the Manila Bay reclamation area.

Macau-based casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. will operate the integrated casino, which will offer 20,000 square meters of gaming space.

“Melco will be the one operating everything. They will make announcement on the branding in September,” Ocier said, adding that the agreements are already being finalized.

Ocier said there is a good chance that Melco’s hotels in Macau will be brought to the Philippines.

To date, Melco’s gaming facilities in Macau include the the 791-room Grand Hyatt Macau, the 300-room Crown Towers, 300-room Hard Rock Hotel and the 216-room Altira Macau Hotel.

Belle Grande is Melco’s first casino outside Macau where it operates the City of Dreams and Altira Macau casinos.

“We’re rushing for the opening in one year,” Ocier said, adding that Belle Grande is on track to starting operations in July.

It will be the second casino complex to open Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s 120-hectare Entertainment City, which is groomed to become the Philippines’ version of the Las Vegas strip. In March, port mogul Enrique Razon opened the $1.2-billion Solaire Casino & Resort.

In March, Belle turned over the Phase 1 structure to Melco for fit-outs and interior finishing. Phase 1 is composed of the main podium and six hotel towers.

Ocier said phase 2, which includes a family entertainment center and a night club, will be delivered to Melco in January.

Melco earlier said it wanted to take advantage of the expected growth in the leisure and tourism industries catering to the affluent and growing Asian middle class.

The project is the first gaming venture of the Sy family, whose flagship company SMIC is involved in five core businesses - retail merchandising, mall operations, property, banking and hotel and leisure.

Pagcor forecasts that gambling revenues in the Philippines will grow from $1.3 billion in 2011 to at least $10 billion by 2017 coming from the operations of the four gaming giants in Entertainment City.