Monday June 22, 2009
Dreaming big
By MELODY L. GOH
Pictures by LOW BOON TAT
City of Dreams, the latest development to open in Macau’s new gambling and urban lifestyle district, is confident it will help boost the country’s economy.
MACAU, one of China’s two Special Administrative Regions (SAR) and a former Portuguese colony, is determined to polish its reputation as a former seedy gambling retreat into a top tourist destination in Asia.
Downtown at the Macau Peninsula is filled with thousands of tourists each day, a majority of whom come in from the Chinese Mainland or Hong Kong. However, to get a bigger (and as it seems, a different kind of) crowd flocking to the country, the government created Cotai, a 5sqkm strip built on reclaimed land.
Grand opening: The City of Dreams is a multicomplex that features three hotels, a shopping boulevard, several food outlets, an entertainment arena and a 39,000sqm casino. The Cotai strip connects the Taipa area with Coloane Island, making it into one big piece of land. And it is on this land that mega developments and projects like posh hotels, casinos and luxury resorts have been constructed. The latest development is the RM8.64bil City of Dreams, a project backed by Melco Crown Entertainment Limited, that officially opened earlier this month.
The City of Dreams is a multicomplex that features three hotels, a shopping boulevard, several food outlets, an entertainment arena and a 39,000sqm casino, making it the second-largest complex in Macau, and the second major casino to be opened on the Cotai strip. It is also the only casino that will open in the country this year, as the economic and financial downturn have fairly affected the gambling industry. In fact, just opposite the City of Dreams is the construction site of another huge project – namely the Las Vegas Sands Sheraton, Shangri-La, and St Regis hotels – that seems to have been left abandoned.
Banking on the City: Lawrence Ho and his wife Sharen at the grand opening of City of Dreams in Macau on June 1, 2009. Nevertheless, in spite of the economic crisis and new travel restrictions (in which mainland residents are only allowed to travel a certain number of times and days), Macau still takes in more gambling revenue than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. And the people behind the City of Dreams seem more than confident that their project will ring in positive rewards.
“We raised all the necessary funds needed before the economic downturn, and we built everything to scope,” Melco Crown chief executive officer and co-chairman Lawrence Ho told a press conference before the project’s grand opening in Macau recently.
“We were on budget the whole time. Unlike some of our competitors who have very stretched balance sheets, we are truly an Asian company so we have always managed our balance sheet very carefully.
“But I think the darkest time for Macau’s gambling industry ended late last year, and it is slowly seeing sequential increase in business. I believe the market will pick up further,” he said.
Ho, son of original gambling tycoon Stanley Ho (who held a 40-year monopoly on the gambling industry in Macau), is banking on City of Dreams’ diverse offerings to attract visitors from overseas by the droves.
He stresses that it is not just a place for gamblers, but is also a retreat for holidaymakers and even families.
“There’s something for everyone ... it is the ultimate destination for urban entertainment in Macau,” says Ho, 31, at the press conference, before introducing the City of Dreams’ many attractions to about 200 journalists from all over Asia who were invited to the grand opening.
At a pre-launch ceremony for Hard Rock Hotel, Ho and several other VIPs, namely Australian businessman James Packer, the other co-chairman of Melco Crown, and Hamish Dodds, president and CEO of Hard Rock, smashed acoustic and electric guitars at the hotel’s entrance. According to Dodds, the act of smashing guitars is a tradition of Hard Rock’s that signifies the start of something great.
Try your luck: The Hard Rock Casino at City of Dreams in Macau features loads of celebrity memorabilia that includes Michael Jackson’s gem-studded glove, Gloria Estefan’s ruffled shirt and one of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars. The City of Dreams complex houses three hotels – the exclusive Crown Towers, the entertainment-themed Hard Rock Hotel, and the Grand Hyatt Macau, which will be opened later this year.
Connecting these hotels is The Boulevard, a “lifestyle precinct” that features upmarket and luxury brand stores like Burberry, Cartier, Alfred Dunhill and Chopard.
A second phase of The Boulevard is currently underway.
In the middle of The Boulevard is The Bubble, a dome-shaped entertainment theatre. Visitors to the complex may enjoy a free 10-minute, 360° multimedia show called Dragon’s Treasure at The Bubble. It tells the story of a dragon pearl and how its mysterious powers affect each of the four Dragon Kings living in the undersea world. Although adults might need to crane their necks a bit to watch the whole show, Dragon’s Treasure really is an audio-visual treat (you get sprayed with water at the end, too!).
In the second phase of City of Dreams’ development, a water-themed Las Vegas-style production called Dragone will be staged permanently in a 2,000-seat theatre that also incorporates an aquatic pool.
Memorable: The King of Pop’s gem-studded glove and boots are on display at the Hard Rock Casino. The complex boasts a variety of Asian-inspired restaurants and cafés like Lung Hin, Treasure Palace, Ji Xiang Yuan and Yo! Noodles. Currently, there are more than 20 outlets already in business at the complex, including the Food Colosseum, a Japanese-style food court.
As for the casinos, City of Dreams has private gambling salons and VIP rooms at the Crown Towers for high rollers, and a two-floor gambling arena filled with hundreds of machines and tables for players who are just out to try their luck in the main area of the building. In the same arena lies the cool Hard Rock Casino, which not only features numerous entertainment-themed machines, but lots of celebrity memorabilia too. Some of these include Michael Jackson’s gem-studded glove and boots, George Harrison’s shirt, Jimi Hendrix’s jacket and an autographed guitar from the Bee Gees.
While City of Dreams faces tough competition from its neighbour – the kitschy and widely popular The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel which brings in tens of thousands of guests each month – Ho believes that competition is actually good for business.
“This project is crucial to us ... and we’re hoping that business will be good within the next few months. What is good for us, is good for our competitors, too, and it is also good for Macau,” he says.
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